Spider bite that put girl of 7 in hospital
Horror after sleepover at her friend’s house
A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD girl’s skin was ‘eaten away’ following a bite from a false widow spider.
Bella Anderson’s mother spotted a mark on her arm, which became worse after a sleepover at a friend’s house.
But medics at a walk-in centre, GP surgery and their local hospital failed to recognise the true cause, despite the wound growing larger than a 50p piece.
It was only when her case was referred to another hospital that a surgeon – who had been bitten himself – identified the source. Bella, who spent two nights in hospital, faced having surgery to clean the wound but was discharged yesterday after responding well to antibiotics.
Her mother, Jaime, 41, said: ‘I don’t normally kill spiders but unfortunately now I will stamp on any that look bad.’
The false widow is the UK’s most venomous spider and has distinctive cream markings on its bulbous brown body – although its bite is not deadly. Bella was bitten at her family home in South Ockendon, Essex, last month but her mother became increasingly concerned following the sleepover on August 23.
Four days later she took Bella to a walk-in centre at Orsett Hospital, Grays, where the wound was cleaned and a covered with a plaster.
A nurse at their local GP surgery cleaned it again and covered it with a dressing the following day, but things continued to get worse.
‘It started to leak pus and the skin looked like it was being eaten away,’ Mrs Anderson said. Bella was taken to Basildon Hospital on Sunday. Staff there warned a skin graft might be needed and sent photographs to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, where a surgeon immediately diagnosed a false widow spider bite. ‘He had been bitten really badly on his leg in the past and they had also treated a little girl before who had been bitten by one,’ said Mrs Anderson. Bella was immediately given antibiotics via a drip and responded well. Mrs Anderson, who lives with husband Trevor, 42, and her other daughter Laurena, nine. said Bella did not suffer any pain during her ordeal, although at first nurses looked ‘shocked’ by the wound.
‘They were going to operate to open up the wound and I was dreading her having to go under, so I’m over the moon that she doesn’t have to. We were lucky. If we had left it any longer it would have been a lot worse,’ she added.
Bella, who is due back in class for a new school year today, said: ‘I think Mummy and Daddy have been more worried about it because it looks so bad.’