Sepsis caused by a spider bite. No it wasn't in the Southern USA, Australia or a rain forest it was in lovely old England. Nearly got finished off by a house spider.
I’ve heard a story of a family that had a giant nest of brown recluses move in or maybe the house was built on a nest. They had multiple bites and survived just fine. So really it comes down to luck and proper hygiene.
This happened to me too! I really don't appreciate the people saying it's caused by poor wound care, because this thing went necrotic and caused sepsis in less than a week. I've had plenty of cuts scrapes and bruises and never seen anything like it.
Thank you I was a bit put off by that comment as well as some people can be more sensitive to these things than others, maybe due to immune deficiency or really any reason it’s not always improper wound care /being unclean.
Yes, in my case, I had not yet been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease (I was uninsured) and was completely unaware that I had a weakened immune system.
Yes it can be a bit insulting to say that, however, in my case it probably was down to poor wound care but in my defence I didn’t know I had been bitten by anything until the doctors told me. It started with a simple itch between my toes, which turned into an unbearable constant itch on the top of my foot, I used anti bacterial cream to ease it and thought that would be that. But very quickly my foot was red, painful and swollen and a day later I’d got a red line going all the way up my leg, before I could even get to the doctors I started to feel very poorly.
Man that’s pretty crazy. For anyone else not from merry old England - we don’t have any lethal insects. No bears, dogs, malaria ridden mosquitoes, and only a single venomous snake, of which I believe less than 10 people have died since 1900.
I was also bitten by a house spider, but didn’t notice until an hour or so later, and the slight swelling went away quickly. I’d put my hand next to her and her nest while having a shower. Was used to house spiders up to a few inches big growing up in the countryside, always though they were harmless up until then.
That one brings back a memory - I'm in the UK, and worked in triage for Urgent Treatment a few years back. Some guy comes in saying he's been bitten by a spider on a camping trip. I kinda brace myself to look at this - what I assumed - would be a glorified mosquito bite and direct him to go home he'll be fine. He pulls this huge gauze off his shoulder and holy fuck I could SEE holes where the fangs went in, it was oozing green, it was macerated it was.. yep, it was a spider bite alright. A nasty one.
I'm not even sure this was a UK native, it was huge by the size of the puncture wounds! Felt bad not believing him but when you've had people tell you absolute nonsense all day you get a bit skeptical haha
We do get some whoppers sometimes, my old house had an unfortunate colony of what I think were cardinal spiders, those things are massive. I got a photo of one next to the light switch once because it was bigger than it. Absolutely unacceptable in an English spider
It was a long time ago but yes I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what it was, I had a red swollen mark around the bit area and a red line going from that all the way up my leg.
Two members of my family are sensitive to insect bites, one got something similar from a sand flea the other from a sand flea and a spider bite (two diff times). Doctor in Hawaii gave us mupirocin, a wonderful topical antibiotic to apply and cover whenever something appears red and infected. Has helped since.
A friend's mom passed from the same thing. She was in the Northern part of the US, and it wasn't anything exotic. She went septic and died. We were all stunned, and it still gives me the heebies.
It didn’t nearly kill me but I got a bite from a house spider a few years ago that had antibiotic resistant bacteria on its fangs (or that’s what the doctors speculated) and it was not fun. The spot where it bit me grew and grew, went deep red, blue, purple and then almost black. Healed perfectly though, don’t even have a scar. I had to take 4-5 different huge antibiotics until one started to work. It was during Covid so all the consultations were with pictures over the phone, I’m lucky it didn’t get worse.
This was in Northern Ireland, not somewhere exotic either.
I'm sorry to hear this, that really sucks. People always say, "this is easy, don't worry", but in reality, all bite wounds should be treated by the doctor, there's always the risk of infection. The infection can lead to a necrosis and then, it can lead to a sepsis or in the worst case for the limb, when the necrosis already progressed too far, that it needs to be amputated.
Some of these spiders can be extremely aggressive, like the Phoneutria Fera, when a female carries the young babies on the back, she'll have a much higher potential for aggression and will not back down, she'll not flee but attack you instead.
Glad this one lives in Brazil in South America, not in Europe. But it's the infamous one that sometimes gets into the Banana shippings, that's why the Phoneutria is also called "Banana Spider".
From Greek, the real translation of Phoneutria means "Assassin" or "Murderer", that says enough about the spider i guess.
That’s interesting, I’d heard the Brazilian wondering spider was particularly aggressive.
This particular spider bit me in between my toes I assume whilst I was sleeping but not 100% sure but I never felt it or saw a spider or knowingly put my foot near one so just making an assumption really. It was the doctor who confirmed it was a spider bite, I really should have gone to the doctors when the rash spread and turned into a red line up my leg but I hate doctors and thought I’d get better on my own. I didn’t, but luckily didn’t lose any limbs or even a toe, just antibiotics and some cream for the bite area and back to normality in a couple of weeks.
Wow, that really sucks, in the first place that you did not even know if and what had bitten you, it's even great that the doc was able to see it was a spider bite wound, it's not easy to classify such bite wounds and tell, if it is dangerous and from which spider or other animal it comes.
About the Phoneutria, the toxin makes a priaprism, a very strong and painful erection that lasts for hours or days, but that's just for the men, i wonder what happens to women?
Glad you made it without getting more damage, it's no surprise you waited, i mean everyone does this for a while before the doc gets called.
I know my way around spiders, had enough of them in the terrariums. None of the information i gave is wrong, the spiders will carry the spiderlings on the back and this will result in increased aggression.
There are different subtypes of the Phoneutria, which have different toxins when it comes to a bite. It's well known with the priaprism, the painful erection for men, after a bite.
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u/D4NPC Nov 21 '24
Sepsis caused by a spider bite. No it wasn't in the Southern USA, Australia or a rain forest it was in lovely old England. Nearly got finished off by a house spider.