A woman was left hospitalised after touching a "poisoned napkin" following a birthday dinner at a restaurant.
Erin Mims, a hair salon owner, celebrated her birthday on Tuesday afternoon with her husband. But when the couple left the restaurant and headed to their car, a napkin was hanging on one of the doors.
Erin, from Houston, Texas, said she threw the napkin away and didn’t think much of it, opening the door with the tips of her fingers instead.
She asked her husband if he had placed the napkin there, but he hadn't.
Erin then returned to the restaurant and washed her hands before getting back into her car.
However, she claimed that her fingers began to suddenly tingle and then the symptoms became progressively worse.
"Maybe five minutes, my whole arm started tingling and feeling numb. I couldn't breathe," she told Fox 26.
"I started getting hot flashes, my chest was hurting, my heart was beating really fast."
Her husband then drove her to the nearest hospital where doctors ran urine samples, blood tests and a CAT scan.
The doctor told her there wasn't enough of anything in her system to determine what it was, but said it was acute poisoning from an unknown substance.
Her doctor was concerned that it could have been a failed kidnap attempt.
"All I could do was think about my babies. It was the scariest moment of my life," added Erin.
Since sharing her worrying story on social media, there have been several comments suggesting that similar scenarios have happened to other people, although this has not been verified.
Erin filed an assault report with the local police who told FOX 26 that their office hadn't received a similar complaint before.
Meanwhile, local poison control expert Mark Winter of the Southeast Houston Poison Center said Erin's symptoms described online match hundreds of different poisons, even though her exposure would be considered "casual" or minimal.
Other people on social media, however, said Erin was not poisoned and instead suffered from a panic attack because she said in the video that she was a germaphobe.
However, Erin said she "doesn't care what people think" and just wanted other people to not touch a napkin if they see one.
She added: "Physically, I'm okay but emotionally, mentally, I'm not. I don't even want to go anywhere by myself."
