July 8, 2008; News 12 at 11

AUGUSTA- The family of a man who died from botulism poisoning is speaking out. His brother says he watched him slowly die in a New Mexico hospital after eating Castleberry's chili. Now his family is suing the Augusta-based company, telling News 12 they don't want anyone else to go through this.

Kevin Caffrey remembers his brother, 52-year-old Christopher Caffrey, as a man who loved his big family. That same family was with him constantly in the hospital during his last weeks.

Kevin remembers, "it was day to day, actually 46 days of a nightmare."

"When he was sent to the hospital, at first, they suspected it was a stroke, you know," he continued. "Of course, you don't arrive at botulism because it's so rare."

Eventually, doctors in a New Mexico hospital came to that conclusion. According to a new lawsuit, Caffrey had Type A Botulism, and his family believes he became poisoned with it after eating Castleberry's chili.

Kevin tells News 12 it started with blurry vision, and neighbors noticed him falling down. The lawsuit also adds he experienced intense thirst. Days later, he was paralyzed.

His brother noticed, however, he could move his big toe and make some facial expressions. "Barry Bonds broke the record when he was paralyzed, and Chris responded with a few smirks, because that's all he could do."

Eventually, as described in the lawsuit, Christopher had to go on a ventilator. "He was present. He could hear us and he knew what was going on the whole time, but he couldn't do anything about it because of the paralysis."

Christopher survived a brain injury in the 70's that left him handicapped. Even with that injury, he still worked, supported himself and his dogs, and volunteered. Surely, they thought, he could survive this.

He did not. Christopher passed away September 9th.

According to the lawsuit, the chili Christopher ate was still on the shelves, even after a recall.

Now his family wants to make sure no other family has to go through what his family went through.

"Community safety is more important than keeping the production line of this processing plant going."

News 12 tried to contact Castleberry's for a comment. Representatives tell us they are working on a statement. We'll get that to you as soon as it comes into our newsroom.