Roslyn man hopes video game Johanna's Vision is warning after son's fentanyl death

When Kamal Bherwani’s son, Ethan, died from fentanyl poisoning in May 2021, the Roslyn resident faced two choices: He could fall into a "sinkhole" and let his life unravel, or try to turn his pain into something positive.

Bherwani opted for the latter.

On Aug. 21, TGA, a Miami-based video game company that produces educational games, released Johanna’s Vision, a first-person game whose titular character is loosely based on Bherwani's daughter Ava, 24.

The plot follows Johanna's mission to uncover the events that led to her brother’s death. Along the way, users learn about the signs of fentanyl poisoning and how to administer naloxone, a nasal spray that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.

Help for other families

Ethan was 22 when he died, a recent Baruch College graduate bound for law school. Kamal Bherwani knows he will never heal from the loss, but he hopes the video game can prevent other families from feeling that same pain.

"It makes what happened more tolerable. You accept it more because at least something good came from a tragedy," Bherwani said. "There will be a lot of people saved through the game that don’t even know they’re going to get saved."

There were 81,083 deaths from opioid overdoses in the United States in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18-45, according to the CDC. 

Bherwani is part of a growing number of parents pushing for a change in language to describe their children’s deaths. They believe "poisoning" is a more accurate term than "overdose," which carries — often erroneously — a connotation of addiction.

"If you overdose, you’re doing it to yourself," he said. "If you’re poisoned, someone is doing it to you."

No help after poisoning

On the evening of May 17, 2021, Bherwani said, Ethan went to Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut and purchased cocaine from a drug dealer, which he then snorted. Ethan did not know the cocaine was laced with fentanyl, his father said. Ethan sat slumped at a blackjack table and then collapsed to the floor.

When help arrived, Bherwani said, no one administered naloxone.

Ten days later, Ethan was dead.

"I accept Ethan’s accountability to doing illicit drugs that night that he shouldn’t have done," Bherwani said. "But you also can’t deny the fact that the person who gave him something, and he had no idea it was fentanyl, you can’t deny the fact there was accountability there. You can’t deny the fact it shouldn’t take 11 minutes for someone to show up and help him." 

Bherwani has since dedicated himself to spreading awareness about fentanyl poisonings and the importance of naloxone availability in public places. The launch of the video game is the latest phase in that process.

The path to Johanna’s Vision started in 2022, when Bherwani met Tomas Giovanetti, the founder of TGA, for breakfast in Buenos Aires. Giovanetti told Newsday he started the company to "harness the potential of games not just for entertainment, but as a means to educate and inspire change on a broader scale."

Bherwani soon partnered with TGA and helped the team devise the game’s mission and story.

Engage, educate

The result is a seven-part first-person game available on smartphones and the web, during which the user plays as Johanna, leveraging her supernatural powers, to piece together what happened to her brother. Johanna can see into the past when she touches things and she uses her powers to navigate the true-crime journey.

"We want to bring the harsh realities of fentanyl use into the light in a way that is both engaging and educational," Giovanetti said. "Our goal is to create an emotional connection with players."

Anyone looking to play the game on their smartphone can find it by searching for Johanna’s Vision in the Apple and Google app stores. The game can also be accessed online at johannasvision.com/.

Six days after its launch, the video game had amassed more than 1,000 downloads, Bherwani said, and the average session time was 35 minutes. More than 30 people already had finished the game.

Bherwani’s daughter, Ava, was not among them. The game starts with Johanna at her brother’s funeral, tears rolling down her face. Ava lasted about two minutes before she had to put her phone down. 

"The girl looked like me. She even dressed the way I would dress," Ava said. "It kind of freaked me out."

Ava and Ethan were best friends, she said. He taught her how to play softball and billiards and do calculus, and introduced her to literary classics like "1984" and "A Tale of Two Cities." 

Six months after Ethan's death, Ava got his signature tattooed on her left arm, and his birthday — Aug. 19, 1998 — on her right.

Ava wants to attend medical school and be a calming presence for patients, she said, in her brother's name. 

Like her father, she believes the game will help save lives. But for now, Ava's not ready to assume the role of Johanna. The app sits on her phone, untouched. 

"I plan to play it," she said, "eventually."

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.