Brown Recluse Bite Causes Injury

A 21 year old Texas Christian University female student was bitten by a Brown Recluse spider in September of 2011 which resulted in an infection that caused the girl to nearly go blind and lose her ear.

Nikki Perez’s story begins at the Amarillo airport. She and her boyfriend, Eric, were waiting along with his mother, when Perez felt a stinging pain on the back of her neck. The spider proceeded to begin crawling over the girl’s face. Perez stated, “Next, I felt something crawling over my face and over my eye. I yelled for Eric to help me, and when he saw the spider crawling over my face, he swatted it to the floor, and stamped on it.”

Eric’s mother, who happens to be a nurse, took site of Perez after the bite and noticed something was seriously wrong. Eric’s mother noticed the violin-shaped mark on the spider’s back and identified it as a Brown Recluse, or Loxosceles reclusa.

Perez picked up the dead spider and wrapped it in a tissue to take with her as she went to a local doctor. On the way to the doctor, Perez’s neck began burning. Once at the doctor, Perez said, “They gave me some steroids and told me to keep an eye on it, but as soon as I got in the car, I could feel my entire head was starting to swell up.”

Symptoms of a Brown Recluse spider bite including swelling and reddening of the affected area, the skin in the affected area then beings to harden. Other symptoms include fever, shivering, nausea and vomiting.

Following the doctor visit Perez says, “I went straight to the emergency department of my local hospital. I was lucky that there was a spider bite expert on duty and he took one look at the spider and said, ‘That’s an immature female Brown Recluse spider.’”

The doctors at the hospital said there was nothing they could do. Perez would have to wait and see if necrosis, essentially rotting, to set in, which could take up to two weeks.

“My ear basically started to rot right on schedule with the doctor’s predictions,” Perez stated.

The swelling began spreading to her entire right side of her face. At one point, her her head was twice its normal size.

“Then it started spreading to my other eye. I was going blind…it was terrifying. It was spreading all over my head, which actually felt like a bit of a relief as the pain was so concentrated behind my ear.” Perez said.

Perez ended up spending four nights and five days in the hospital hooked up to an IV containing vital steroids. Upon discharge she had to wear a helmet and later a headband to protect her face.

Experts fear cases like that of Nikki Perez will be on the rise as the populations of Brown Recluse spiders spread. Currently, these spiders are centered more in the south, so we warn our readers to be well advised and on the look out. Experts fear by 2020 they could move further north toward portions of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and even New York.