False widow bite nearly killed me
on his foot caused by infection from spider bite EXCLUSIVE AMY SHARPE A DAD says he feels lucky to be alive after a spider bite left him in hospital with meningitis.
David Garstang’s foot doubled in size when he was bitten by the false widow in his kitchen.
The recruitment worker was treated at A&E after he contracted an infection from the venom.
Two weeks later, 6ft 4ins David was diagnosed with viral meningitis.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star Sunday, the 29-year-old said: “It has knocked me for six. I’m totally wiped out – all from a tiny nip from an innocent-looking spider.”
False widows – our most venomous spider – have been increasing in numbers for the past two years thanks to rising temperatures
They have hospitalised several Brits but this is the first known case of meningitis from a bite. David, who has three children aged one, two and 14, was let out of hospital after six days but is still off work and on medication. He was in his kitchen early last month when he noticed a spider scuttling away from his bare left foot. Over the next two days it grew swollen and red. David felt tired, feverish and weak. Five days later he consulted his doctor. David, of Yateley, Hants, added: “My foot swelled to double its size and my shoe wouldn’t fit.”
The next day, unable to walk comfortably and with his foot beginning to blister and leak pus, he went to A&E. Doctors diagnosed a false widow bite.
Further tests revealed he had the skin infection cellulitis which could have spread to his bones and caused permanent damage. He also had viral meningitis. David recalled: “The doctors told me I had viral meningitis. I thought I’d misheard them, I couldn’t believe I’d contracted something so serious from a UK bug.
“To me, meningitis sounded pretty dangerous, it was a shock that something so big could come from a tiny bite.”
“Although they explained it wasn’t life-threatening, that wasn’t much of a comfort.”
“I was proof that everything I’d said to my kids about spiders not being scary was wrong.”
David will have to take medication for two months. He said: “It’s been hellish but I’m on the mend.”