After a hard day's work on his Crystal Beach home, Everett Johnston just wanted a cold beer.

He grabbed a Tecate Light out of his fridge and began to sip. But, Johnston said, something didn't taste quite right. He said his wife looked in the bottle and noticed a rat's head floating inside.

Johnston filed a lawsuit recently in Galveston County against FEMSA Cerveza (CCM), the Mexican maker of Tecate, as well as Heineken, which distributes the beer in the United States, among other defendants. He's citing the severe psychological damage he says he has suffered.

The 59-year-old retired firefighter said Thursday that all he wants is an acknowledgement of his intense suffering — how in the moments after drinking the beer two years ago he wondered whether he would live or die.

“The first thing came to my mind was it was a rodent that had eaten rat poison,” Johnston said.

He remembered a story about a man who drank something contaminated with rat urine and later died.

“I can't explain it,” he said. “That kind of fear was something I had never experienced before.”

In a written statement, Heineken said: “While we cannot discuss the specifics of these claims due to company policies surrounding active litigation, we stand behind the quality of our products and those we distribute. CCM is a world renowned brewer with the highest standards for safety and quality.”

A worker at FEMSA said no one was available to comment Thursday, and a company spokeswoman didn't return an e-mail message.

Johnston said he began vomiting after drinking the beer and went to a hospital where he had X-rays and blood tests. He said he has since saved the contaminated beer in his freezer.

Johnston added that eating out of a can now is traumatizing to him and he has trouble eating when food isn't prepared directly in front of him.

He also said his suffering made him incapable of caring for his elderly father-in-law before his death.

Counselors have told Johnston there's not much more they can do for him, yet he said the pain continues to gnaw at him. He said he'll donate anything he wins in the lawsuit to charity.

Johnston's lawyer, Roy Elizondo III, said neither Heineken nor FEMSA has been responsive to his attempts to resolve the matter out of court.

“Some day someone could die from stuff like this,” Elizondo said.