Amelia Axelrod had just settled into a new chapter of her life.
The New York school teacher had recently moved into a new apartment with a roommate, reassured by the leasing company that the unit had been thoroughly inspected before their arrival. At first, everything seemed clean and ready to live in.
Then the symptoms began.
She started waking up in the middle of the night, gasping for air, her chest tight with pain.
Highlights
- A New York City woman woke up in the middle of the night for a week, struggling to breathe.
- When a visit to the doctor didn’t help, she investigated the matter on her own.
- What she found is known to cause respiratory conditions among farmers and some factory workers.
“I couldn’t breathe,” she later told viewers, describing nights interrupted by sudden panic. Medical consultations brought no clear answers, leaving her without relief or explanation.
Eventually, she decided to check beneath her bed.
What she found there left her shaken, and quickly unsettled the thousands who followed her story online.
A New York City woman discovered she was struggling to breathe because of a mushroom
Image credits: ameliaaxel/TikTok
Amelia Axelrod kept waking up in her NYC apartment at night, struggling to breathe, but it mysteriously got better once she left for work in the morning.
“I woke up in the middle of the night because I couldn’t breathe,” she told Newsweek in June 2026. “Once I left my apartment for work, my breathing improved.”
The next day, the same thing happened. She was also experiencing respiratory issues and a tightness in her chest while she was inside her apartment.
Image credits: ameliaaxel/TikTok
“I went to urgent care but got no answer,” she said.
After going to the doctor brought her no relief, Axelrod decided to probe the matter on her own and found something unexpected right under her bed, growing out of the floorboards.
“I pushed my curtain back and saw the mushroom on the floor,” she said.
Worried, she looked it up online and identified it as an oyster mushroom.
Amelia’s landlord helped her take care of the situation
Image credits: ameliaaxel/TikTok
Axelrod wasn’t sure how the mushroom ended up in her apartment, though she revealed that her bed is located right next to a set of patio doors.
“It could’ve been that a spore somehow got into my apartment during a rainstorm while I had the door open. It could be due to a leak in the patio doors or possibly mold,” she speculated.
“Mushrooms tend to grow very quickly in humid or moist environments, so that’s how I think it got so big so quickly. Then again, I just started a full-time job and hadn’t looked back there in a week, so who knows!”
While the source of its growth could not be determined, cooperation from her landlord, whom she chose not to name, helped her quickly remove the mushroom.
“I have spoken to my landlord about the situation, and they have been very accommodating and willing to work with me,” she said.
Image credits: ameliaaxel/TikTok
Axelrod said she was now more at ease in her apartment, but was still keeping a close eye on the area under and around her bed, just in case the growth returns.
She did not comment on whether she has experienced any physical discomfort since the removal of the mushroom.
Oyster mushrooms cause a type of pneumonitis in livestock farmers and some manufacturing workers
Image credits: ameliaaxel/TikTok
Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) are not poisonous and are, in fact, one of the most popular edible varieties used for cooking.
However, it releases large amounts of microscopic spores as it matures, which can act as airborne allergens and cause reactionary coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, or asthma-like symptoms.
According to a 2014 study published in the European Respiratory Journal, laborers working in indoor oyster mushroom cultivation facilities often develop allergic symptoms, including a form of extrinsic allergic alveolitis known as Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis (HP).
It is commonly referred to as the Mushroom Worker’s Lung condition. It is also commonly seen in farmers working with livestock, cheesemakers, and malt workers.
The inflammatory immune response in the lungs causes a persistent cough, breathlessness, fever, and chills. Symptoms improve within a few days with treatment.
Image credits: Prostock-studio/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
The study mentioned a 23-year-old male mushroom worker who was admitted to the hospital with complaints of chills, fever, body pain, and skin rashes. He got better with medical therapy and was discharged at the end of the first week.
However, prolonged exposure and delayed treatment can significantly worsen symptoms.
"Your house is literally decomposing," a viewer warned
