A BITE from the ‘UK’s most dangerous spider’ turned a man’s leg black and left him unable to walk.
Adam Abrehart, 34, said he was unknowingly bitten by a “false widow spider” while running a 5km fun run in June.
Kennedy NewsBlack dead skin spread up Adam’s leg from the bite.[/caption]
Kennedy NewsAdam thinks the bite was from a 5km fun run[/caption]
Kennedy NewsThe pain from the bite left runner Adam struggling to walk[/caption]
The dad-of-three noticed a small bite mark on his calf after the run, but symptom of infection didn’t surface for several weeks.
After a bout of vomiting and intense exhaustion a month later, Adam realised the bite was now a huge red rash the size of his hand.
Adam’s calf then turned black, fearing sepsis he called 111 and they advised him to head straight to hospital.
He limped to the hospital and the staff put him in a wheelchair.
“The doctor took one look at it and said I had cellulitis and it had come from the bite” he said.
Adam, a window cleaner from Shefford, Bedfordshire, thinks the bite came from a false widow, after he noticed two red dots in the shower after a run.
The fang marks appeared to be healing “but then it got infected towards the end of July.
“August 1st is when it really started affecting me and the infection took hold of my leg. The bite started going really red” he said.
Within 24 hours Adam was admitted to hospital.
“My leg slowly started hurting, the redness was getting bigger and bigger, it was the size of my hand by the morning.
“It was getting really itchy and I was being sick. By the afternoon it had gone halfway up my leg and the bite had gone completely black.
I was thinking sepsis, alarm bells were ringing.”
Adam went to Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, on advice from 111.
He was diagnosed with cellulitis and told the black skin around the bite was dead.
Doctor’s considered surgery to remove the wound but Adam was discharged after two days and prescribed a strong course of antibiotics.
The noble false widow is considered to be “the most dangerous spider breeding in Britain”, according to a 2020 paper from Oxford University Zoologist Clive Hambler.
The spider, known as Steatoda nobilis is not native to the UK and it is believed they arrived in banana boxes from the Canary Islands in the late 1800s.
If you are bitten, medical experts recommend applying an ice pack, keeping the area elevated, taking pain killers and using antihistamines.
A keen runner, the ordeal has delayed Adam’s marathon training and he is now wary of running in shorts near the river: “I’ll probably be wearing running leggings now.”
Kennedy NewsAdam was kept in hospital for two days and given antibiotics[/caption]
Kennedy NewsHe says he will opt for running leggings when near the river in future[/caption]
Kennedy NewsDespite starting as a small bite it quickly became a huge painful wound[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
