Posted on 08/23/2019 2:09:09 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Doctors in Kansas City, Missouri, pulled a venomous brown recluse spider out of Torres' ear, and somehow, she kept her cool.
But she's never sleeping without earplugs again. She woke up Wednesday morning with popping and swishing sounds in her ear. She decided to check it out after work, though she didn't think much of it at first, she said.
A medical assistant examined Torres' ear, then ran out of the room to grab more sets of eyes. Soon, two nurses, three medical students and a doctor joined the assistant in the tiny exam room to break the news--a spider had set up shop in her ear canal.
Remarkably, she stayed calm, even with the knowledge that a skittering spider was squatting in her head, she said.
"Seeing the instruments they were going to put in my ear started to make me panic," she said.
The doctor flushed her ear with water, but it didn't budge.
After a few more tries, the doctor pulled it out in one piece and laid it out, legs flayed. They determined the invader to be a brown recluse spider, a nocturnal spider that can inject victims with a venomous fluid if it bites, she said.
"The nurses said it was dead, but they might've just said that so I wouldn't freak out," she said.
In some sort of miracle, the team informed her the arachnid skated down her ear canal without so much as a bite, she said.
She thinks it might have entered her ear while she was sleeping, so now she doesn't take any chances. She bought ear plugs shortly after her ordeal ended.
"I just didn't think it was possible for them to come inside the ear," she said. "Who would've thought?"
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
Brown recluse is poisonous enough to kill your cat or dog and give you a bite that may become gangrenous. I cannot imagine why anyone would laugh about that.
Don’t forget the nose plugs too, and some duct tape...
Reminds me of a Night Gallery episode.
Great, now I’ll never be able to sleep again.
“... stock prices of insect repellent manufacturers has suddenly shot up...”
I saw that! Or at least I think it’s the same one you’re referring to. The one where the spider ate through the persons brain and came out the other ear? Turned out it was a female that laid eggs? eeeek!!!
I got nailed on the left forearm by one of these. It rotted a hole about the size of a pea. Didn’t know what it was until someone saw it and told me. I’d been peeling shingles, evidently a favorite place for them to hide.
Yep.That’s the one.
They got the spider out ... but did they get the eggs??????
Happened to me. I woke up and couldn’t hear out of one ear. Stuck a Q-tip in, and a brown recluse skittered out on the Q-tip. I thought I’d never sleep again. This happened while I was living in Missouri. What are the chances? It didn’t bite me, praise the Lord.
You are probably right because they are noting but bad news.
Great. Why didn't they just sell tickets? Meanwhile the previous attempts to get the spider out could have agitated it. It could have bitten her inner ear. Probably killed her.
Why did I click on this thread?
She’ll be the first to know.
We lived in rural MO for a few years. You always had to look carefully inside your rural mail box or when checking the in-ground water meter. They loved to set-up shop in those protected areas.
“but did they get the eggs”
Of course not.
Today’s ER wants her to return and pay their fee for every spider birth from all the eggs. Probably a maternity wing surcharge too.
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