Spider Bite puts Woman in Hospital
A 52-year-old grandmother has told how she spent more than 24 hours on
a life support machine after being bitten by a deadly spider.
Lyn Mitchell woke up struggling for breath when she was bitten on the
chest while in bed at her home in Egremont, Cumbria.
The culprit was thought to be a false black widow - Steatoda grossa -
which usually causes blistering and a general malaise lasting for
several days.
Mrs Mitchell said: "I suddenly woke up in severe pain. I just jumped
out of bed, pulled the duvet and sheets back and saw a spider running
all over the other side of the bed.
"It was tiny, black and shiny and it ran so quick - I have never seen
anything move so fast. I didn't try and kill it because I felt so ill.
"If I hadn't been put on the life support machine I think I would have
died."
Pest controllers from Copeland Borough Council sprayed her home and
Mrs Mitchell said she found the spider dead behind her bedroom door
several days later.
She said the Natural History Museum told her it was the worst case of
its kind they had come across.
Yahoo News: 20th January 2009
