The widower of a woman who tragically died after eating at a sushi restaurant has revealed her haunting final words before she passed away.
Donna Ventura, 64, was left fighting for her life after an lunch date with her husband Jon turned lethal when she ordered the ‘special roll’ off the menu at Dave’s Sushi in Bozeman, Montana.
The retired financial advisor went into complete kidney and liver failure, was unable to breathe without a ventilator and was left in agony for 13 days at the Bozeman Health hospital, after eating at the popular restaurant in April last year.
She was one of the 51 unsuspecting diners who became seriously ill – and one of the two who died – after eating Dave’s Sushi’s special roll, which consisted of salmon and was topped with morel mushrooms.
Donna Ventura passed away nearly two weeks after dining at Dave’s Sushi last year (KBZK)
The latter is one of the most easily recognised edible mushrooms, which are fine to consume when cooked – however, the portion which Donna and the other customers ate were not.
As they are poisonous, they have to be cooked before they are safe to eat – and although all tests for pesticides and other toxins came back clear, investigators found those who became unwell had all eaten uncooked mushrooms. Other diners who ate cooked mushrooms were fine.
Deadly dinner
Shortly after leaving the restaurant, Donna became extremely ill and her husband of 34-years had to bundle her into the back of an ambulance to Bozeman Health, where she then went into cardiac arrest.
She remained in the intensive care unit on a ventilator, with Jon and her son at her bedside, from 17 April 2023 to April 29.
The mum was battling poisoning after eating the special roll, as the toxins in the uncooked morel mushrooms had sent her liver and kidneys into failure.
The fungi were found to be ‘true morels’, which usually have lower levels of the toxin hydrazine in, but are still deadly if consumed raw.
Hydrazine can inflame and damage organs as well as inducing nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain, as it causes direct damage to kidney and liver cells.
This counteracts their ability to clean a person’s blood, while destroying red blood cells, resulting in organ failure and inflammation.
Discussing his wife’s final days, Jon told KBZK News that he handed Donna a red marker pen and a piece of paper so that she could communicate with him and their son.
He explained that after she passed away on the morning of 29 April after declining a feeding tube, he was unable to make it to the hospital in time to say goodbye.
Last words
Her husband of 34-years revealed her last words as she fought for life in hospital (KBZK)
The dad said: “I told my wife on her deathbed that one of my jobs would be to hold those accountable for what they’ve done to her. It worries me greatly about the people who eat at Dave’s Sushi.”
Revealing her final words to him, Jon said Donna scribbled messages including, ‘I’m not sure I can go on much longer’, ‘How are we going to manage?’ and ‘I can’t stand the pain’.
He added: “And then the last couple she wrote were to me and our son, where she wrote ‘I love you’ and to our son, ‘I love you, Mr C’.”
Both Donna and William Lewis, 74, of Toston, Montana, passed away after dining at Dave’s Sushi.
An investigation conducted by Gallatin County health departments found that between 28 March and April 17, 2023, the pair and 50 other people became unwell after eating the morel mushrooms at the restaurant.
Morel mushrooms are fine to consume cooked, not raw. (Suzi Pratt / Getty Images)
Three of these were also hospitalised.
Jon has launched a legal battle against Dave’s Sushi – which was temporarily shut down in April before it reopened the following month – and is suing the eatery for wrongful death.
Investigators from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said of the case: “On April 8, morels were served partially cooked: a hot boiled sauce was poured over the raw morels, after which they were marinated for 75 minutes.
“On April 17, the morels were uncooked and cold-marinated before serving.”
The investigation
Officials reckon those who ate the second batch of mushrooms, which were not cooked, were nine times more likely to become sick than the people who consumed them on 8 April.
Speaking to MTN News, Dave’s Sushi said it has been ‘fully transparent’ throughout the investigation and have since ‘implemented Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) extensively in our kitchen’.
The restaurant said: “Our entire kitchen management team is ServSafe Manager certified. We have also implemented extensive food and environmental safety measures, testing, and monitoring.
“We hope that other retailers and restaurants that plan on continuing to distribute and prepare morel mushrooms educate their clients and consumers that these mushrooms are not fully understood.
“We understand from the case control study performed that the morel mushrooms served at Dave’s being undercooked contributed to a greater likelihood of people becoming ill from their consumption.
“There are numerous reports of people becoming ill, in some cases fatally, from eating cooked morel mushrooms.
“We are grateful that The CDC and FDA have both released their first and only publicized guidelines on morel mushrooms.
“We hope that this information is distributed with morel mushrooms in hopes that a tragedy such as this is prevented from happening again. We feel awful about this outbreak, especially for the individuals and families affected from consuming the morel mushrooms at Dave’s Sushi.”