Donna Ventura, Bozeman, Montana mom dies from poison mushroom as family file wrongful death lawsuit against Dave’s sushi restaurant after incorrectly preparing mushrooms.
‘I’m not sure I can go on much longer…’ Those are the last words a Montana mother uttered from her hospital bedside, less than two weeks after falling ill after having lunch at a popular sushi restaurant after having eating a poisoned mushroom leading to the shut down of her organs and eventual death.
Donna Ventura, 64, a retired financial adviser, suffered a complete kidney and liver failure and was put on a ventilator at Bozeman Health hospital where she had fought for her life for 13 days against poisoning from uncooked mushrooms.
Scribbling with a red magic marker on pieces of computer paper, Donna told her husband Jon and son Christopher, ‘I’m not sure I can go on much longer,’ and, to her son, ‘I love you, Mr C.’
Sushi restaurant had failed to cook imported mushrooms
Donna was one of 51 diners at Dave’s Sushi to have become seriously ill and one of two who died after eating a special roll topped with uncooked morel mushrooms, KBZK News reported.
Morels are typically considered gourmet edibles, with investigators saying all tests for pesticides and other toxins on their surfaces had come back negative.
Nevertheless investigators discovered that the people who got sick ate raw mushrooms, while those who ate cooked mushrooms were fine.
The investigation pinpointed morel mushrooms imported from China as the likely source of the outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
While morel mushrooms are generally considered edible, the CDC warns they need to be fully cooked to prevent potential toxic effects.
‘It was surreal to think that the simple act of eating lunch would end up putting her in the intensive care unit,’ Donna Ventura’s husband, Jon said.
Poisonous mushrooms
In April 2023, Donna and Jon went to Dave’s Sushi in downtown Bozeman for lunch, where Donna ordered a special sushi roll.
Soon after Donna had to be loaded into an ambulance and driven to Bozeman Health, where she went into cardiac arrest.
From April 17 to early April 29, Donna was in the intensive care unit, hooked up to a ventilator because she could not breathe on her own.
The toxins in the mushrooms had caused her liver and kidneys to fail.
The mushrooms were found to be true morels which, compared to the ‘false’ variety, tend to have lower levels of the toxin hydrazine, and are poisonous if consumed raw.
50 getting sick & two dying after eating at Dave’s Sushi in Bozeman
Eating foods containing hydrazine can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain can inflame and damage organs.
The compound causes direct damage to kidney and liver cells, disrupts their ability to clean the blood, and destroys red blood cells, leading to inflammation and failure.
In her final days, Jon Ventura said his wife of 34 years was ‘was in enormous pain’, adding that ‘her skin was tight, fluids were building up in her system.’
A few months after her death, the state and Gallatin County health departments concluded an investigation which found that between March 28 and April 17, 2023, another 50 people who ate morels at Dave’s Sushi got sick. Four, including Donna, were hospitalized.
Donna was the second of two patrons to die after dining at Dave’s. William Lewis, 74, of Toston, Montana, died just one day after eating there, on April 18.
Wrongful death lawsuit
The results have led to Donna Ventura’s family now filing a lawsuit against the restaurant.
Explained Donna’s husband, Jon: ‘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.’
Jon is suing the restaurant on a wrongful death claim, as is the family of Mr Lewis. Dave’s temporarily shut down in April but reopened the following month.
Jon told the 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.’
Since Ms Ventura’s and Mr Lewis’ deaths, and the spate of gastrointestinal illnesses, the local health department has uncovered nearly two dozen other violations at the sushi restaurant, including unsafe temperatures in a sample of raw fish and problems with the restaurant’s dishwashing machine.
At the restaurant, the mushrooms were served uncooked, having been marinated in a cold liquid but not cooked.
An FDA investigation later learned that other restaurants that had purchased mushrooms from the same distributor had cooked theirs before serving them, and no customers got sick.
According to CDC investigators: ‘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.’
Investigators found that people who ate the less cooked mushrooms on April 17 were about nine times more likely to get sick than people who ate the partly cooked ones on April 8.
