A woman from Montana shared a heartbreaking final message with her family before she died after consuming poisonous mushrooms.
Donna Ventura, 64, became seriously ill just one hour after eating at Dave's Sushi, a sushi restaurant in Montana.
When she dined at the restaurant in April 2023, Donna ate a sushi roll which was filled with salmon and morel mushrooms.
Morels are a mushroom widely used in cooking and are generally considered safe to eat.
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However, they can be dangerous if they are not properly cooked and should not be eaten raw.
The 64-year-old had been out to lunch with her husband Jon Ventura and some friends, but became ill just hours after eating the roll which is believed to have contained undercooked morels.
She was one of 51 people who became sick after eating the mushrooms at the restaurant in April 2023.
But tragically after she was transferred to hospital Donna's condition continued to deteriorate.
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Donna died on April 29, and had to scrawl a heartbreaking final message to her family using a red magic marker.
Among the final messages she gave to her husband was: "I’m not sure I can go on much longer, how are we going to manage, I can’t stand the pain."
Donna's husband Jon told KBZK: “The last couple she wrote were to me and our son where she wrote, ‘I love you’, and to our son, she wrote, ‘I love you, Mr. C’.”
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He added: “It was surreal to think that the simple act of eating lunch would end up putting her in the intensive care unit.”
The grieving husband explained how the toxins from the uncooked morel mushrooms destroyed her kidneys and liver and damaged her esophagus and trachea.
Jon has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Dave's Sushi. His is one of two which have been filed as another diner, 74-year-old William Lewis, also died.
The Center for Disease Control’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report examined the incident and found that morels had played a part in a spate of food poisonings affecting 51 people, including Donna and William.
The study reads: “Consumption of morel mushrooms, which are generally considered edible, was strongly associated with gastrointestinal illness.
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“A dose-response relationship was identified, and consumption of raw morel mushrooms was more strongly associated with illness than was consumption of those that were at least partially cooked.”
Speaking to KBZK, Jon said: “I told my wife on her deathbed that I would hold those accountable for what they’ve done to her."
He added: “They’ve avoided all responsibility for the pain and suffering they’ve caused not only me and my son, but every person affected by their atrocious behavior,”
UNILAD has reached out to Dave's Sushi for comment.
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