Donna Ventura, a 64-year-old American woman, died after eating a sushi roll that contained raw morels.
- Donna died after eating a sushi roll containing raw morels.
- This mushroom can be toxic when uncooked.
- 51 people got sick after eating in the restaurant. A total of two people died and three others were hospitalized.
On April 17, 2023, Donna Ventura started feeling ill after eating at a sushi restaurant with her husband and friends. The couple thought she was suffering from simple food poisoning…but it turned out to be much more serious. The 60-year-old was sick from an uncooked mushroom. This poisoning was fatal to him.
Mushroom: fatal poisoning
Her husband Jon spoke to the media about his wife’s last days Montana Free Press And KBZK. His wife felt severe pain less than an hour after eating the restaurant’s “special roll.” “I called an ambulance. And in the hospital, she suffered a cardiac arrest.”, remembers the retiree. When he heard the words “code blue” while waiting outside the emergency room, he admits he became convinced they had been issued for another patient. “It can’t be my wife, because it’s just food poisoning”, he remembers thinking. But the alarm had sounded for his wife.
“That’s when I knew it wasn’t just normal food poisoning.”remembers Jon Ventura. “It was serious, and she spent the next 12 days fighting.”
Once Donna’s heart restarted, doctors quickly determined that the cause of her problems was not the fish in the roll, but uncooked morels. Indeed, these mushrooms can be toxic when raw.
Despite treatment, the toxins present in the food gradually destroyed his kidneys and liver and damaged his esophagus and trachea. In addition to severe pain, Donna began having difficulty speaking, swallowing and breathing. When her condition worsened, she refused the feeding tube.
“When you’ve been married as long as I was, you can understand your partner’s body language and appearance”explains Jon to KBZK. “The third or fourth time I spoke to him (about the feeding tube), I got a look that said: I’ve made my decision and it’s over, I’m not talking about it anymore.”
Donna died on April 29, 2023 at age 64 after writing a final “I love you” on a sheet of paper for her husband and son.
Raw morel mushroom poisoning: the restaurant blamed
An investigation was conducted by Montana and Gallatin County health officials. She confirmed that Donna had been poisoned by the morels in the sushi roll. The latter, imported from China, had not been cooked. They had only marinated.
Besides, Donna wasn’t the only victim of raw mushrooms. 50 restaurant customers, who came on April 8 and 17, 2023, became ill after eating it. A 74-year-old man also died and three other people had to be hospitalized.
“Study results indicated that eating morels in restaurants was strongly associated with the development of disease [gastro-intestinale]. Additionally, people who reported consuming a larger amount of sushi containing morels were more likely to develop illness than those who reported consuming fewer pieces. notes the report taken up by Montana Free Press.
An investigation by the FDA (US health authorities) revealed that six other restaurants had purchased morels from the same supplier at that time. But the cooks had cooked them all. None of their customers reported getting sick.
As ANSES explains, you should never eat raw mushrooms. It is recommended to cook each species separately and sufficiently. That is to say 20 to 30 minutes in the pan or 15 minutes in boiling water with the cooking water discarded. “This destroys parasites and bacteria, and makes certain species edible (shiitake, morels, certain boletes)”reminds himANSES.
