"I had no idea your body could even produce such bizarre symptoms," she would say later of the chills that started at the her and seemed to turn the blood in the lower half of her body cold, the tingling in her hands and feet that could have been someone pinching her, the muscle spasms that ignited an intense burning sensation. (p. 11)
- This isn't an average cold people have to deal with sitting at home. This is something Gail Jorgensen, a thirty-nine-year-old mother, has to deal with every single day of her life after a family trip to North Carolina. Not only Gail has to deal with these electrifying sensations but also her two children, Soren and Carolyn. After months of tests, Gail decides to sit with her children and decide to figure the roots of their burning trauma.
They looked like autumn leaves scattered leaves on a lawn after a big wind. She told her children not to touch them, but there were so many it was hard to avoid them completely. Gail Jorgensen had forgotten this, but now she exclaimed, "Oh my God, that's right!" (p. 15)
- Gail and her family took a trip to North Carolina and during their journey, they found a river swarmed with dead fish. As her children inch closer to touch them, Gail scolds them by telling them not to jump inside the river. At that moment, their family train of thought had came to a brilliant stop. Since all of the fish seemed dead in the river, something in the mass of water had contaminated the fish, leading to their demise. This is how the Jorgensen family became sick.
"I don't think so, baby," Gail replied. "Fish are a lot smaller than we are, and our bodies have a way of fighting things off. So no, I don't think we have to worry that what killed them will hurt us." (p. 16)
- Little did she know, Gail decides to not break the horrific news to her daughter. The family's symptoms include seizures, burning sensations, and hallucinations. Pfiesteria are the dinoflagellates that harm predators via "hit and run" by releasing toxins. As these symptoms fade away, these flagellates attack constantly until the predator cannot withstand and then consumes the dead victim.
A primitive group that has been traced by the fossil record back at least 500 million years, dinoflagellates form the base of the food chain in both fresh and salt water, being consumed by small organisms that in turn are eaten by larger organism, all the way up to fish. (p. 29)
-According to different professors, these Pfiesteria gain food by photosynthesis or consumption of protozoans. In Smith's case, an assistant to Dr. Noga, the dinoflagellates Smith is studying cause infections, rather than benefit the food chain. The offensive dinoflagellates produce and release toxin.
"Red tides," as these blooms were called, poisoned the water. Fish were killed by the millions, as sometimes were birds that fed on them. While shellfish often managed to survive, they frequently became contaminated, and it was through them that humans became seriously ill. (p. 33)
-The magnitude of the destruction of wildlife animals can be catastrophic. Dinoflagellate population can explode until certain circumstances and when they do, voluminous amounts of toxin is released. The unaware filter feeders then consume these harmful protists, which is then consumed by other heterotrophic animals. This outbreak continues on as more and more predators become victims from this algal bloom.
