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A Texas woman was rushed to the hospital after touching an allegedly poisoned napkin on her car door that doctors say may have been a part of an attempted kidnapping scheme.
Erin Mims was celebrating her birthday at a local restaurant with her husband on Tuesday in Houston when she noticed a napkin handing on the car door handle while they were leaving, she recalled in a Facebook video.
Mims said she is a ‘germaphobe’ and wouldn’t have touched the napkin, but after one margarita, she assumed maybe her husband put it there as a joke and immediately tossed it to the side with her fingertips.
‘When my husband got off the phone, I asked him, “Did you put a napkin in my door?” and he was like “no.” Immediately, I started looking for the hand sanitizer.’
‘I went inside, washed my hands, and maybe like two minutes later my fingertips started tingling,’ Mims recalled.
‘After five minutes, my whole arm started tingling, then it starts to feel numb, I got lightheaded, I felt like I couldn’t breathe, [and] it got hot. It was just a whole bunch of different feelings at one time. I started to panic.’
Erin Mims was rushed to the hospital after touching an allegedly poisoned napkin on her car door on August 16. Mims was eating at Prospect Park in Houston when she noticed the napkin as she was leaving
Mims grabbed the napkin by her fingertips but later touched the door handle with her whole hand. Within five minutes, her whole arm went numb and she was rushed to the hosptial
Mims recalled the horrific incident in a Facebook video. She recreated parts of the incident by showing viewers how the napkin was settled on the door handle. PICTURED: Mims recreated how the napkin appeared on her door in a video
Mims emotionally recalled being in the hospital for about six hours as her vitals were ‘not stable.’ A doctor later said the napkin may have been placed there in an attempt to kidnap her
Mims’ husband then called 911, and she was rushed to Houston Healthcare hospital where doctors later determined her vitals were ‘not stable.’
‘I was there for about six and a half hours,’ Mims said as her eyes swelled in tears. ‘The doctor said I had acute poisoning from an unknown substance. I didn’t have enough of it in my system to determine what it was, but just that little amount had me messed up.’
‘So just imagine if I would’ve wrapped it with my whole hand, I probably could’ve been dead.’
The doctor said the poisoned napkin could’ve been a kidnapping attempt.
‘What started out as a great day, turned out to be one of the scariest moments of my life,’ Mims said.
Mims’ birthday plans to go to the spa and enjoy a special dinner were ruined within seconds, but she warns others to keep alert if they notice anything similar.
Houston Police Department said that Mims’ poisoning incident was the first they’ve seen, but her symptoms align with various poisons.
‘The probability is that you would have to have a lot more than just a casual exposure,’ a spokesperson told the New York Post. ‘In her video, her symptoms match hundreds of different poisons. It is possible. I’ve learned over my 40 years, that anything is possible when it comes to the human body.’
Mims was celebrating her birthday with her husband when the incident occurred. She recalled being unable to go to the spa or her birthday dinner, but warns others to stay alert of their surroundings
PICTURED: Prospect park Bar & Grill. The restaurant pictured above is where Mims was enjoying her birthday lunch with her husband
Similarly to Mims, a Kentucky woman was hospitalized after she picked up a dollar bill she suspected was laced with fentanyl in July.
Renne Parson says she was driving with her husband, Justin, and children through Nashville, Tenn., when the family stopped at a local McDonald’s to use the restroom.
Renne was holding her three-month-old baby while waiting to use the restroom when she spotted a dollar bill on the ground.
‘Thinking nothing of it – I picked it up,’ Renne wrote on Facebook.
Once the family got into the car, Renne began experiencing symptoms as she placed the dollar in the interior of the car.
‘All of a sudden I felt it start in my shoulders and the feeling was quickly going down my body and it would not stop,’ she explained.
Renne grabbed her husband’s arm when her body suddenly went numb.
She added, ‘I could barely talk and I could barely breathe. I was fighting to stay awake as Justin was screaming at me to stay awake and trying to talk to 911 and find the closest Fire Station or Hospital. I passed out before we arrived at the hospital, but thankfully they worked almost as quickly as my husband did to get me there.’
She was later discharged by medical experts claiming it was an accidental overdose.
Renne speculated the dollar was laced in fentanyl, but police said there were no traces of fentanyl on the bill.
Renne Parson suspects she was poisoned with a dollar bill laced with fentanyl. Parson was waiting to use the restroom at a McDonald’s in Nashville, Tennesee, when she spotted the dollar on the floor
An officer who arrived at the hospital to take a police report suspected the bill did have traces of fentanyl, according to Renne. However, police later said no traces of fentanyl were found on the dollar
The Perry County Sherriff’s Office warned locals to not touch any folded dollar bills that are found on the floor after two reported incidents of fentanyl appearing in the printed currency