Mum’s haunting last words after eating sushi topped with toxic raw mushrooms at ‘favourite restaurant’

A mum has died following a family lunch at a sushi restaurant after eating a special roll of sushi topped with raw mushrooms.

Donna Ventura’s family lunch took a dark turn after she ate a plate of sushi at her favourite restaurant in Bozeman in the US state of Montana.

The 64-year-old retired financial advisor suffered kidney and liver failure from uncooked mushrooms.

Hooked up in a ventilator and unable to speak, she scribbled her final messages to her husband and son on a piece of paper before dying two weeks after the poisoning.

Donna struggled to write with a red marker: ‘I’m not sure I can go on much longer’, and, to her son Christopher, ‘I love you, Mr C’.

She was one of 51 diners at Dave’s Sushi restaurant who became seriously ill, and one of two people who died after eating a special roll topped with uncooked morel mushrooms last year, Dailymail.com reports.

Diners at the restaurant ate raw mushrooms while those who consumed cooked fungi were fine. Toxicity tests off their surface came back negative.

Morels are considered a delicacy around the world, especially in French and Catalan cuisine.

But they may be safe to eat only after cooking as this neutralises an unknown toxin thought to be hydrazine and even then caution is advised. They might cause stomach issues even after cooking.

Over the past 15 years, 150 reported cases of mushroom sickness linked to morels have emerged, the outlet reports.

Donna visited the Bozeman restaurant with her husband Jon in April last year for a quick bite, ordering a special roll.

At home not long after coming back from the popular restaurant, her husband could only watch in horror as Donna was loaded into an ambulance and rushed to Bozeman Health hospital.

She went into cardiac arrest after arriving there.

Donna was kept in the intensive care unit from April 17 to April 29, hooked up on a ventilator as he was unable to breathe on her own.

Doctors found the powerful toxins in the mushrooms had caused her liver and kidneys to fail.

Tests revealed the mushrooms were true morels, Dailymail.com reports.

Compared to the ‘false’ variety, they tend to have lower levels of the toxin hydrazine but are poisonous if eaten raw.

Foods containing hydrazine can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea while abdominal pain can even damage organs.

Donna’s husband of 34 years Jon Ventura told KBZK News Bozeman about her painful final days.

Her entire body hurt and her skin was tight like a balloon because of the fluid build-up in her system.

Jon, a nuclear researcher from Belgrade, had given her a piece of paper and a red marker to write what she wanted as the ventilator prevented her from speaking.

The messages were heartbreaking, including ‘how are we going to manage’ and ‘I can’t stand the pain.’

Jon told: ‘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.’

Donna declined a feeding tube and sadly passed away on the morning of April 29 after 12 days of fighting for life in horrible pain – before Jon could get to the hospital and say goodbye.

Following the incident that killed two and hospitalised other diners, the state and Gallating County health department carried out an investigation.

It found that between March 28 and April 17 last year, another 50 people who ate morels at the sushi restaurant got sick with gastrointestinal symptoms. Four, including Donna, were hospitalised and she was the the second of two diners to die.

William Lewis, 74, of Toston, Montana, just day after eating at Dave’s Sushi on April 18.

While health officials could not identify a specific toxin, bacteria or a contaminant in the mushrooms that caused the outbreak, they said the way the restaurant prepared them could have played a role, Montana Free Press reports citing the investigation.

The fungi had not been cooked, only marinated in a cold sauce, Gallatin County health authorities found.

A report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said: ‘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.’

Both families of Donna and Mr Lewis are suing the restaurant which temporarily closed in April but reopened the following month, according to Dailymail.com.

Jon 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.’

He said he was ‘appalled’ at the statements put out by the restaurant after the deaths.

Jon told Montana Free Press: ‘Frankly, what appalls me is the restaurant puts out statements about how we’re in their thoughts and prayers. Really? That level of hypocrisy is hurtful, painful.’

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that the morel mushrooms served at Dave’s Sushi were distributed to ‘multiple states’ across the US, but no other illnesses were reported.

The agency issued guidelines on preparing morels after its own investigation: ‘Properly preparing and cooking morel mushrooms can reduce risk of illness, however there is no guarantee of safety even if cooking steps are taken prior to consumption.’

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