Bitten in early June by a brown recluse spider, the 60-year-old man living near Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle) almost had his arm amputated. A month’s hospitalization and a transplant saved his limb from necrosis.
- The sexagenarian, residing in Meurthe-et-Moselle, was bitten by a brown recluse, a small spider with toxic venom native to the American Midwest.
- Four operations and a flesh graft were needed to save his hand and arm from necrosis.
It’s the kind of spider that makes arachnophobes shudder. Native to the Midwest and Deep South of the United States, the “brown recluse” is a poisonous spider that you would not expect to find in France.
However, it was she who bit Patrick Genet in early June at his home in Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, in Meurthe-et-Moselle, while he was asleep. When he wakes up, the 60-year-old immediately feels excruciating pain in his arm, “as if we (him) were burning the flesh”, he tells The Republican East.
Flesh graft needed
The pain not being reached, Patrick Genet tells the regional daily that he ended up going to the emergency room. On the spot, the doctors are worried: his hand and his arm, very swollen, show signs of necrosis and neither the cleaning of the flesh nor the antibiotics seem to have an effect.
To avoid the amputation of the arm, a first operation takes place. It will be followed by three other surgeries: a graft of flesh and skin extracted from the abdomen was performed, allowing Patrick Genet to keep his arm. After a month of hospitalization, the sexagenarian returned to his home.
If he retains a scar of several tens of centimeters on the side from which the tissues were extracted, he fortunately retained the motor skills of his hand. However, a follow-up will be necessary this winter to monitor the bite and restore his hand to its original shape, which is still very swollen.
Two more bite cases reported
Well known across the Atlantic, where it is found from Florida to Mexico, as well as in southeastern Ontario (Canada), the brown recluse produces bites that are generally very painful, especially if they are not treated quickly, ideally within 24 hours. Its venom destroys arteries and veins and, in the most serious cases, its bite can cause necrosis of the affected tissues and infections. Six to eight weeks of healing are then necessary depending on the surface of the body affected.
In very rare cases, the pain can cause vomiting, nausea, fever, partial paralysis. Victims can die from circulatory failure or kidney failure.
According to The Republican Easttwo other serious cases of recluse spider bites were recorded this summer in Meurthe-et-Moselle.
.
