Calls That Start With "Don't Freak Out"

These are the type calls that I don't look forward to as a mother.  Unfortunately I received ones of these distressing calls today.  Here's how it went down...

Around 9:45, I called Matthew to check in with him during a break from work, per usual.  He answered the phone in a completely normal tone.  We proceeded to have a normal conversation, until I heard these words, "Now baby, I don't want you to freak out...."  He continued on to tell me that he had been working with some cobratoxin, and a few minutes earlier he had started to get really flushed, was having trouble breathing, and felt like he was going to pass out.  A co-worker in his lab had to call 911, because they were afraid that he was having a reaction to the toxin.  M then said that he was feeling a lot better; they had canceled the 911 call, and he felt like he was fine.  I felt a little uneasy, usually there are doctors working in his lab, like "real" MD doctors :) but at the time it was just him and a fellow PhD, so I told him I would feel better about it, if I could come over and check him out myself. 
 
I run to tell my boss, tell her that it doesn't seem like a big deal, and that I will be back in 20 or so minutes.  I run up two blocks to M's building, and he's sitting down in the lab.. not looking "fine".  Right before I had arrived, Phillip, a pulmonologist, had gotten there and was checking M out.  He was shaking, still having trouble breathing, and said his throat seemed tight.  Not good signs.

M says he wants to go outside and get some fresh air.  I oblige, although I'm a little uneasy about him walking anywhere.  Outside, the symptoms continue.  I'm trying to coax Matthew into going to the ER, while at the same time trying to pretend I'm not worried.  He then tells me that he looked on-line, and apparently 4 micrograms/kg of cobratoxin is fatal.  Great news...things are looking up at this point.  I then get on M's phone and call our good friend, Jason Booten, who conveniently enough is an ER resident at UAB.  He says that if he continues to feel worse, he should come in, and he would speed up the process so that M wouldn't have to wait in the ED..which can take extremely long at a Level 1 Trauma Center. 

M decides that he thinks it 's best to go home... I don't want him sitting outside alone while I go get the car, so I decide to walk him upstairs back to his lab.  Except we don't make it back to lab, because M's symptoms get worse again.  Emergency Department it is...

4 tubes of blood, an IV of saline, an EKG, a chest x-ray, a call to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), and 4 hours later... the attending ER physician said that M could go home.  We're not sure what happened.  Whether he happened to inhale some of the toxin, or got some on him... we're not positive.  Either way, let's just be thankful that he didn't accidentally inject himself with it. 

Moral of the story:  Don't play with deadly toxins at work.  Stick with the boring stuff, like neutrophils.  I love you Matthew!  I'm so glad that you are ok!

The Proof...