Man dies after 19 bites from black widow?

[Hamburglar]

I thought this story seemed a little strange and was curious if anyone knew anything more about it. If everything is true I'm curious how one gets so many bites?

http://www.kdvr.com/videobeta/c4971a9e-0819-4611-a626-ecf044b6e781/News/Erie-man-dies-was-bitten-by-Black-Widow-spider-19-times

 

[patrickbull]

I found these articles. Nothing seems conclusive yet. It is interesting how people automatically jump to the spider being the cause.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...mes-black-widow-spider.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011...led-by-1-black-widow-spider-bites/?test=faces

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/8276432/man-dies-after-19-black-widow-spider-bites

 

[Hamburglar]

Yeah, I like how they opened the story with, "the deadly black widow spider" to get everyone going right off the start. I guess they are also assuming that there was 19 envenomations. The photo of his foot was interesting.

 

[49ers]

19 times.... that seems incredibly strange....

 

[cnapple]

I'm very skeptical. They never mention how they know he was bitten by a black widow in the first place. They just show his foot with a bunch of red bumps - could have been caused by a number of things, and his sister says he works at a barn and "could have brought one home". I just don't see how 19 bites is possible, short of sticking your foot in a bucket full of them and shaking it around to stress them out...

 

[Bazzgazm]

Whats funny is they post "DEADLY BLACK WIDOW" without cause of death being known.

But when someone who's a drug addict dies, they don't list "drug addict dies of overdose, cause still unknown at this time"

Really... they're quick to blame.. but not so quick to retract.. fear mongering news...

i'm going with some other illness causing this and he probably didn't even get bitten.... it's not like black widows are chasing people down and attacking them...

 

[pitbulllady]

I saw this story on Foxnews.com and was immediately highly skeptical of a spider having anything to do with this. You will notice that the man's death occurred two WEEKS after his alleged bites, with none of the usual symptoms for Latrodactus envenomation being reported. I know two individuals who have been bitten by Black Widow spiders and saw the spider when it bit, and believe me, it did not take two weeks for THEIR symptoms to show up! Both told me that the pain they experienced was the worst they'd ever had in their entire lives, both required hospitalization and antivenin. One of the guys is a Vietnam vet who had been shot in combat and the other has survived a bite from a Canebrake Rattlesnake, but both said that the violent muscle cramping from the Widow bite was worse than being shot or bitten by a Rattlesnake! Neither had any local reactions to the bite at all, no red bumps or anything like that. One required mechanical ventilation at the hospital until the antivenin took effect. Both began experiencing obvious symptoms of envenomation within half an hour of the bite, and both were only bitten ONCE.
The bites on this guy's foot in the news story look more like flea bites or mosquito bites. There are still some nasty diseases that can kill you which are spread by fleas and mosquitoes, right here in the US. Many of those diseases have symptoms that are vague and "mimic" less severe illnesses to start with, then quickly go downhill. We still have Plague here in the western US, and West Nile and other forms of mosquito-borne encephalitis in the east. Then again, his death could have easily been from something totally unrelated to the apparent bites. In any case, I seriously doubt that any spider had anything to do with it.

pitbulllady

 

[MrEMojo]

I totally agree with the above. I was bitten by a L. hesperus(?) a couple months back. I fealt very nausiated and had terrible cramps(mainly abdominal). It was definately the worst bite I've ever experienced.
As far as this story goes I find it impossible that a single or even a couple Widows could deliver 19 bites all injecting venom.

Peace

 

[The Snark]

I saw this story on Foxnews.com and was immediately highly skeptical of a spider having anything to do .........

pitbulllady

Sheesh! No offense meant but if you just correctly label the source, 'I saw this story on Far Fetched Fantasy News' you won't need to go into all the details.
Be that as it may, you and others are, from personal experience, quite correct. A half hour and WHAM! I was beaten with a misery stick with vomiting a pleasant distraction from the spasms.

There is however a record of a man in Aus who packed a Widow back to bed from the outhouse and was bit multiple times. He had to receive antivenin for many months.

Be all that as it may, we need to resign ourselves to the indisputable fact, most 'news' is no longer news but sensationalist tripe to keep the viewers tuned in to the 18 minutes of commercials played every hour. :barf:

PS I suppose we should cut some slack for Faux News, Murdochmedia, and other populist trash noise outlets. Rewrite that headline accurately and what would happen to their hypnotized mouth breather audience:
"Man with odd dermatitus on foot dies. This news channel automatically suspects a black widow spider though there isn't the slightest shred of scientific evidence to support our wild opinion."

 

[buthus]

ha ...LOL... not ta confuse anything with the real issue here... but...

As far as this story goes I find it impossible that a single or even a couple Widows could deliver 19 bites all injecting venom.

... I gotta disagree with this splurt. I've provoked n'witnessed more than a few "long term" multiple bite 'attacks' with both mactans and hesperus. So I gotta think...
Resting an obtrusive hairy/skin object against a widow's web ..add a bit of random yawning wriggle plus some rhythmic snoring like movement... well, if that widows up to it, I guarantee a great chance of multiple envenomations(word?) x(multiple visits) thru-out the 'night'.

 

[paassatt]

It is interesting how people automatically jump to the spider being the cause.

I agree, although I'd use frustrating instead of interesting. I constantly hear from friends and acquaintances when they wake up with a bite somewhere, "I got bit by a damn spider last night!"

:wall:

 

[Comatose]

I remember reading that story, and it said somewhere that this guy was terrified of spiders, and had gone to strange lengths to avoid them... I'm calling BS on this one. It's just like the Sydney Funnel Web they found in Arkansas a month or so ago... idiots.

Here it is:

"Seale, a former high-school baseball star, became obsessed with the spiders, Fox31 reported, going so far as to spray his house to prevent a spider infestation.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/22/man-possibly-killed-by-1-black-widow-spider-bites/#ixzz1TPZ6uq5j"

---------- Post added at 10:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:43 AM ----------

I agree, although I'd use frustrating instead of interesting. I constantly hear from friends and acquaintances when they wake up with a bite somewhere, "I got bit by a damn spider last night!"

:wall:

Right?!? And doctors seem to be more likely to agree with them then explain than the little red dot on their arm could be anything. I usually try to explain that I've been handling spiders for 16 years, and have been bitten exactly once (it actually happened to be a widow; interesting story) and it was because I was being an idiot. Spiders don't run around looking for people to bite... okay, now I'm just ranting.

 

[The Snark]

The melodrama!

The players:
1 or more homo erectus.
A naturally occurring organism.

The play:
Erectus gets tagged, or suspects getting tagged by organism. INSTANT SENSATIONALIST MEDIA EVENT.

Has the human race become so disassociated and removed from reality?

Case in point. Mossman Aus. 1991. A major party. A very drunk woman decided to go swimming under the full moon in an estuary. The croc, on it's favorite hunting night of the month in it's own back yard discovers picture perfect prey flopping around under it's nose.
The locals became wildly indignant over the deceased moron and formed a posse to slaughter all the crocs in the area. It took the efforts of many conservationists and groups, including Steve Irwin I was told, to limit the slaughter to 4 crocs.

Just how stupid can the human race get? How has it survived this long?
(Apologies for hijacking the thread)

 

[Vespula]

Are people really this dumb? I hear it way too often, "I got bit by a **** spider" They just won't accept that it most likely wasn't one. It gets way too frustrating.

 

[brownwidow]

being bit 19 times from a black widow seems highly unlikely they seem to be very skittish they rather roll up into a ball or run away than to actually bite they seem docile enough to be handled i know i have hold in my hand a black widow and a brown widow and not once have i been bitten this story seems very fishy