Posted on 03/13/2009 5:25:56 AM PDT by LibWhacker
He's been confined to a wheelchair for 20 years. Now a paraplegic man is walking again. And his doctors call it a miracle. CBS13 went to Manteca to find out how a spider bite helped get him back on his feet.
"I closed my eyes and then I was spinning like a flying saucer," explains David Blancarte.
A motorcycle accident almost killed David 21 years ago. At the time he might have wished he was dead.
"I asked my doctor, "sir what happened?' I can't feel my legs," said David.
Ever since, David's been relying on his wheelchair to get around. Then the spider bite. A Brown Recluse sent him to the hospital, then to rehab for eight months.
"I'm here for a spider bite. I didn't know I would end up walking," says David.
A nurse noticed David's leg spasm and ran a test on him.
"When they zapped my legs, I felt the current, I was like whoa and I yelled," he says.
He felt the current and the rush of a renewed sense of hope.
"She says,'your nerves are alive. They're just asleep," explained David.
Five days later David was walking.
"I was walking on the bar back and forth," he said.
Now David is out of the hospital and on his feet and walking.
David basks in his glory and gives a ray of hope to other hoping to walk again. The 48-year-old former boxer and dancer are taking it in stride, knowing his best days are still ahead.
David's dream is to see his 14-year-old twin daughters grow up and get married so he can walk them down the aisle and have that first dance.
That also gave me the chills. Thanks a rot! :-)
Don’t like spiders. Never have.
Ewwwww! Is that the one that bit Frodo? ;-)
> Ewwwww! Is that the one that bit Frodo? ;-)
Strangely enough, Shelob in Lord of the Rings WAS based upon the Tunnelweb Spider for the movie. The one I have in front of me is a pet: she hangs around the window, and I catch moths for her and feed them to her live. She’s quite tame.
There’s an even creepier spider here in New Zealand. During the 1990’s there was a movie called ‘Arachnophobia’ — I don’t know if you remember it?
The stars of that movie were “Avondale Spiders”, and they are found primarily in Avondale, West Auckland. They have very, very long legs — when stretched out they are as big as dinner plates (smallish body, tho’) Perfectly harmless, but creepy ay!
Google might have a picture — I’m not going to check because I might get creeped out...
(Indiana Jones doesn’t like snakes. I don’t like Avondale Spiders...)
This is absolutely necessary if you use cotton bedding. Cotton is a natural substance (obviously) and pests think its a good, natural place to hang out.
In fact, termites will consume bedding, clothes, etc., made from cotton. Termites consume cellulose and cotton has cellulose in it. (termites can’t digest wood—they live off of protozoa in their gut that actually “eat” the cellulose—protozoa is passed on to nymphs from adult termites during feeding)
Cardboard has cellulose in it—probably why the recluse prefers it—it’s very much like a rotting tree. Oh, and termites will definitely go after cardboard.
There’s your entemology lesson for the day.
I find this stuff fascinating.
Spiders give me the heebee geebees.
What if the spider venom stirred up some anti-body cells within the nervous system that reacted to repair the nerve cell endings? Just a hunch!
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