Posted on 02/28/2014 4:58:25 AM PST by dennisw
Ronald Reese, 62, of Lakeland, Florida died February 16 from complications from a brown recluse spider bite Reese was bitten on this neck in August and numerous related illnesses and hospital stays followed
A 62-year-old Florida man's February 16 death is being blamed on a brown recluse spider bite, a fatality so rare that statistics aren't even kept for them. Ronald Reese was bitten in the neck by the spider, which are usually about the size of a U.S. quarter, all the way back in August while clearing out an old house. What followed were six agonizing months of related illnesses as the Lakeland man clung to life with an abscess eating away toward his spine until he finally let go last week.
Reese managed to make it home that day in August after he was bitten, but by the following day his father told TheLedger.com that his son could barely get out of bed. Days after that, a paralyzed Reese collapsed. The Polk County Medical Examiner deemed his death the result of complications from a spider bite, but between his collapse and his eventual death, Reese suffered terribly.
Reese's 88-year-old father William Reese said his son went through numerous procedures and was in and out of the hospital, but nothing seemed to work.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
They hitch rides in packing crates and luggage and can show up way beyond their natural range.
It sounds odd and painful but apparently it does work.
It involves an electrical charge passed through the site of the wound. The most common way is to use the charge created by the start of a lawnmower. Remove the wire from the spark plug. Ground one side of the wound to the tip of the plug or body of the engine. The spark plug wire goes on the skin on the other side of the wound. A fast pull on the starter cord does the trick. Something about the low current/high voltage charge that destroys the venom...whether it's the enzymes in it that get zapped or something else, I don't know.
If ever I get bit I intend to try it immediately. Call me nuts but modern medical science has no cure. I would be looking to old time cures if it were me.
Reading all of the anecdotes about brown recluse spider bite effects that have been posted in less than 15 minutes, I wonder how rare these problems are.
That is awful! I have an elderly brother in law (84) who lives in the Texas panhandle. My son & dau-in-law went by to check on him about 3 weeks ago and found his house FULL of the spiders...even in his bedroom under the bed! They called an exterminator out immediately to take care of the problem. He is an independant ol’ cuss and won’t have a housekeeper “because they might steal something.” No bites so far!
Yes. I know that black widow spiders have been found here in Massachusetts in bags of grapes at the market. Brown recluse spiders have also found their way here in similar ways, brought in as “hitchhikers”.
Colorado is not a bad place to be. :)
Those things terrify me. I have/had them in my sheds and a few in my house. I tried a lot of things, but a powder I bought from a DIY pest control company seems to be working.
The pictures online of those spider bites scare the beejesus out of me.
Apparently their bite is not poisonous but it carries a flesh eating bacteria. That’s why you have to remove the flesh close to the bite. If you don’t you end up with pictures of your thumb, etc. on the internet to scare everyone. ;-)
I used to hate jumping spiders (the only spider that has ever bitten me and it was worse than a bee sting) but no more. I found out they are a natural predator to Brown Recluses.
Meanwhile I found four or five black widows on my property last year.
Don’t know you’ve been bit most of the time.
Side note, we like in WA and are thinking of relocating to KY? How do you like it? We have been in the NW for a very long time, did you transition well?
Unless you're a fan of the second amendment
I’m wondering where did he go for treatment? Was he offered hyperbaric oxygen along with advanced wound care?
I lived in the Seattle area for 45 years. My transition was a piece of cake, except it took me two years to find “paying” work in my field. In hindsight it is because I went about it wrong. There is lots of work if you are in IT.
The only thing I hate is the bugs. You don’t just lay down in the grass around here and bug spray is NOT optional if you walk in the woods. Chiggers are an awful thing to get.
All that said, the people are wonderful and the climate is spectacular. It gets colder than Seattle but winter is MUCH shorter. The frost actually goes deeper into the ground in Seattle. And traffic is simply not an issue here.
Been here about 2.5 years now. We just bought the ~20 acres next to the place we originally bought. The property taxes are just a hair more PER YEAR than my monthly car payment on the car in the slide show. And the total price for BOTH properties was just over one year’s Seattle wages.
http://s409.photobucket.com/user/robbbb4/slideshow/Kentucky%20home
What a beautiful place.
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