Man, 26, left with horrific flesh-eating wound five months after being bitten by false widow spider as he slept
A MAN suffered a horrific flesh-eating wound five MONTHS after being bitten by a false widow spider as he slept.
Doctors were initially baffled when Carl Jones, 26, asked them about a red, blistering wound on his arm.
At first there was a red outline and several pus-filled blisters on his left arm[/caption] But Carl Jones ended up being hospitalised when he became seriously unwell[/caption]The Milton Keynes man said he first noticed the red sore on his upper left arm back in January when he woke to find he had several pus-filled blisters.
Lab technician Carl didn’t know he’d been bitten by a spider, but still went to an urgent care centre to find out what was wrong.
Unfortunately, doctors there were completely clueless about its cause, and simply dressed the wound.
Unsurprisingly his arm injury soon worsened – becoming infected.
It eventually started to eat at the surrounding flesh, leaving a nauseating £2 coin-sized wound filled with pus.
Poor Carl became seriously unwell, and ended up in hospital.
‘DRIPPING WITH SWEAT’
He said: “I ended up in A&E. I was at work and someone said I didn’t look very well. I was dripping with sweat.
“I experienced lots of sweating and fevers.
“I underwent investigations for Borrelia, TB and eventually skin cancer as the wound wasn’t healing after five months.”
Doctors tried to cure Carl’s injury by putting him on three different antibiotics but none were effective.
Finally, in June – a very long five months on from the initial bite – Carl underwent a biopsy, which successfully cut out the infected part of his wound.
And it was Carl who eventually worked out what had happened to his arm.
He stumbled on the culprit for his injury when he spotted a noble false widow spider in his bathroom.
Carl said: “I came home from work the other night and I’ve never seen anything like it before.
“I looked into cases around Milton Keynes and I saw a news article about an increase of false widows in the area.
“I just put two and two together really.”
Given that he’d already been hospitalised, Carl decided to err on the side of caution and killed the spider.
But he insists he normally prefers to move them outside.
I underwent investigations for Borrelia, TB and eventually skin cancer.
Carl Jones
Carl added: “I can’t stand spiders. I won’t be going anywhere near them now.
“I’m a bit uncomfortable sleeping in my room.”
False widow spiders are common in the UK and are venomous, but generally do not bite unless they feel in danger.
The males are more prone to biting when provoked or trapped against skin.
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In March the Sun Online wrote about a girl, six, who was rushed to hospital after being bitten by a false widow spider in the garden.
Ayla Riddock’s mum, Kim Matheson, 28, noticed a blister and red rash on her daughter’s left foot and took her to the doctors.
She was diagnosed with cellulitis – a skin infection that if left untreated, can turn into sepsis.
Ayla spent five days in hospital on an IV drip following the diagnosis.
And last year we revealed how a roofer feared he would lose a leg after being bitten by a false widow spider after his leg turned red and became swollen.
Carl Jones – a self-confessed arachnophobic from Milton Keynes[/caption] The doctor had no clue what had caused the wound[/caption] He was bitten while he slept[/caption]