Air-Clinic Writing Contest: Poison, Toxins, and Killers

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My eyes slowly fluttered open and I stared at the white expanse of space that seemed to stretched on. My mind was momentarily blank, and then the memory came rushing back. I'd just had close shave with death.

Never had I experienced a pain so profound and consuming as what I'd just been through.

It had started so innocently, just a mild twitch here and another there and then it had suddenly grown so intense, I was doubled over in minutes.

"Ah, I see you are awake, Mr Fadipe", the doctor, a pretty, lithe lady in her early thirties announced as she came into the ward. She must be doing her morning rounds. " That was a close one.'

"Am I okay now?'I muttered, my voice coming out in a croak.

" Not quite. You are out of the woods, but we still need to keep you for a some observation to and ensure you are fully cured.

"You see, the posion really did a number on you, and we have to be sure it's completely out of your system."

"Poison?" I muttered, confused. "H-how?"

"Yes, we found trace elements of clostridium botulinum in your system", she replied, saw my clearly confused look and continued. " In layman terms, it's a kind of poison mostly found in canned food that wasn't properly processed.

"You're lucky as yours is a rather mild case of it. In extremes cases, it leads to respiratory failure, paralysis or recurrent symptoms as patients never fully recover. However, you should be fine."

She scribbled something in her note, turned to give the nurse beside her a few instructions, and with a polite smile at me, moved onto the next patient.

As she talked my mind flashed back to my unnatural love for canned food. I would rather eat that than fresh or frozen foods. I'd been warned a few times, my girlfriend even tried to break this habit but failed.

Now that I'd nearly lost my life, I didn't need a soothsayer to know this was one habit I had to kick to the curb, and fast too.

Word Count: 349