WAILUKU, Maui — A Maui man's illness after eating a can of Cattle Drive chili that was the subject of a national recall is being investigated as a suspected case of botulism.

Jon Stockton, 33, remains hospitalized today at Maui Memorial Medical Center, where doctors are waiting to see if the toxin spreads to his lungs and causes breathing difficulty.

Stockton yesterday said he was "doing fine" but still felt some numbness in his face, one of the symptoms of botulism, a rare but serious illness caused by consuming foods tainted by botulinum toxin. The toxin, produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, affects the nervous system and can cause paralysis and death.

"I feel like I just got done with the dentist," he said.

The cause of Stockton's illness has not been confirmed, said state Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo. Fluid samples taken from the man have been sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and it will take days before the results are known, she said.

Stockton said he bought an eight-pack of Cattle Drive canned chili at Costco in Kahului three weeks ago. That was before manufacturer Castleberry's Food Co. of Augusta, Ga., and the federal Food and Drug Administration announced a voluntary product recall July 18 and an expanded recall last Saturday that included 88 canned meat products under various brand names and four varieties of canned dog food under the Natural Balance Eatables brand.

Stockton said he had heard about the recall but didn't realize he had bought one of the suspect brands of chili.

"I heard something about Castleberry but never connected it to Cattle Drive chili. I thought it was a different company," he said.

Costco in Kahului referred calls about the case to its corporate office in Kirkland, Wash., which could not be contacted yesterday to comment.

Two children in Texas and an Indiana couple who ate Castleberry's brand Hot Dog Chili Sauce Original became seriously ill and have been hospitalized, and a California woman was diagnosed with botulism after eating a can of Kroger Chili with Beans.

The CDC said all the recalled brands were canned in the same plant.

An average of 110 cases of botulism are reported in the United States each year, the CDC said. Of those, 25 percent are foodborne, most commonly as a result of eating contaminated home-canned foods.

Symptoms of botulism include double or blurred vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing or muscle weakness. If untreated, the illness may progress from head to toe, with paralysis of the face, arms, breathing muscles, torso and legs.

According to the CDC, symptoms generally begin 18 to 36 hours after eating a contaminated food, but they can occur as early as six hours or as late as 10 days.

BOUGHT BEFORE RECALL

Stockton said he is living in Hana, working with a small church ministry, and had gone to Costco three weeks ago to stock up on canned goods.

He and his cousin Eric Fritz, 28, ate some of the chili last week and felt mildly ill with stomach upset, he said.

They ate more chili for dinner Monday night, and stored an open can in the refrigerator overnight before eating it again Tuesday night. Stockton said he was told by health officials that leaving an open can in the fridge may have allowed the bacteria to spread.

Four to six hours later, Stockton fell violently ill but didn't think he had anything worse than a common case of food poisoning, he said.

"It was miserable. I had a weird night of sleep. They said it's different for everybody. The toxin chooses its own path," he said.

"I felt it all in my face. I had a weak and achy feeling when I woke up. I thought I had been bitten by a spider or something."

The symptoms seemed to subside when he began moving around and going about his daily business, but later he experienced numbness in his face and sought medical help Thursday at the Maui Memorial emergency room.

"It felt like I had Novocaine in my head and my eyes were drooping and fluttering," Stockton said.

Fritz, who was not hospitalized, said he felt some slight numbness in his arm but was affected to a lesser degree.

HIS SECOND CLOSE CALL

Stockton said he delayed seeking treatment because he was hoping to "get it all out of my system" in time to catch a Thursday night flight to the Mainland.

His hospitalization means he will miss the Police reunion tour concert today at Boston's Fenway Park, where he was planning to meet up with a friend.

"I can't go now," he said.

In the meantime, Stockton is anxiously waiting to find out if the toxin spreads to other parts of his body.

The respiratory failure and paralysis that occur with severe botulism may require a patient to be on a ventilator for weeks, according to the CDC. The paralysis can slowly improve after several weeks.

If diagnosed early, foodborne botulism can be treated with an antitoxin, which blocks the action of toxin circulating in the blood and can prevent patients from worsening, the CDC said.

Despite the potential complications, Stockton said his illness is "small potatoes" compared with an ordeal five years ago off the Kona coast, when he capsized while kayaking and spent five days drifting on the open ocean before being rescued 80 miles southwest of the Big Island. The rescue was widely covered in the news media.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.