Suspicious Spider Bites on LI, NY...Black Flesh Symptoms

Newsday ^ | 6/29/02

[tendoree]

I live in N.E. PA and work in NJ. I was told I was bitten by a brown recluse when I ended up in the hospital in Dec for 4 days after my bite site (size of a golf ball) had gotten realy bad and was very painful and was turning black, at 5 weeks my bit site was Black because the skin was dead. I noticed a bite of some kind on my leg in Nov, but did not go to the doctor right away. When they took the top of the dead skin off there was a hole all the way to the muscle. I was told by the first doctor that there are no brown recluse spiders in this area and then the surgeon told me it was a brown recluse bite, he had seen them before and was positive. since this has happened to me I have meet several poeple in NJ and CA who have been bitten by by brown recluse spiders and they were bitten between 7/02 and 12/02. I went to have my taxes done yesterday and the lady doing my taxes told me I was the 4th person who has come in there and told her they were bitten by a brown recluse...reading all of this and running into all these poeple who have been bitten is very scary, makes me wonder if it is really a brown relcuse spider bite spider????