Boy survives funnel web
A 10-year-old boy bitten by a deadly funnel-web spider needed 12 vials of antivenene to survive – the most administered in Australian history. Matthew Mitchell (above) was helping his dad clean up the back shed of their Berkeley Vale property on Monday night when he was bitten on the finger by a spider hiding in a shoe.
A TEN-year-old boy bitten by a deadly funnel-web spider needed 12 vials of antivenene to survive – the most administered in Australian history.
Matthew Mitchell was helping his dad clean up the back shed of their Berkeley Vale property on Monday night when he was bitten on the finger by a spider hiding in a shoe.
“It sort of clawed on to me and all the legs and everything crawled around my finger and I couldn’t get it off,” the youngster said.
Matthew eventually managed to flick the arachnid off with his other hand but not before letting out a “yelp”, his dad David said.
“It landed a few feet away from me so I knew exactly what it was,” Mr Mitchell said.
Mr Mitchell, his wife Shelly and Matthew’s older sister Natasha piled into their car and headed to the nearby doctor’s clinic.
It was shut so they went straight to the after-hours chemist at Killarney Vale.
They had taken his T-shirt off him and used it as a compression bandage with Natasha, 17, calling 000 from the car about 6pm.
The Year 6 student was rushed to Gosford Hospital where his symptoms worsened. His eyes dilated, he started sweating and frothing from the mouth. He even went into seizures before doctors administered the antivenene.
The spider was taken to the Australian Reptile Park.