Complications after a spider bite send Walkerton man to emergency room

Walkerton, Ind.—

It’s a bug, experts say, is no bigger than the size of a quarter.

And if threatened, it could be a hidden danger right in your own home.

“I want the public to be educated about the brown recluse bite,” said Cindy Henehan, the victim’s fiancée. “It’s very dangerous."

Cindy’s fiancé says he learned that lesson last week.

“We did landscaping in the front, replacing it all, we painted the porch and then in all the bushes, as we’re pulling the weeds, there were spider webs everywhere,” said victim Jerry Wagoner.

What could be lurking underneath his house was not even a second thought for Wagoner.

“When I got bit, I did not feel it, or know it, see it or nothing,” said Wagoner. “The next day I noticed a couple little white bumps on my arms.”

Wagoner says he noticed the bumps while driving to see family out of state.

By the time he got there, his arm looked like this.

“The swelling got bigger my body felt like it was being destroyed,” said Wagoner.

Wagoner went to the hospital and was treated for complication due to an insect bite.

“He thought he was going to die, he just wanted to lay in bed and die and I’m like no, get up, get dressed and go to the emergency room,” said Henehan.

He says he those complications turned into a fever, staph infection and MRSA.

Wagoner got a second opinion from his home physician.

He says his doctor recognized he was bitten by a Brown Recluse Spider.

“Their venom, if they’re highly allergic to it can cause, damage that looks a lot like a person with an ice cream cone dipper with the flesh etched out,” said Jeffrey Burbrink, an Extension Education at Purdue.

Burbrink says those types of spiders are usually seen in southern states, so it’s uncommon they would be in our area.

They’re about the size of a quarter and typically shy.

Although they aren’t aggressive, they could bite if they feel threatened.

“Just go in with caution, be aware there could be something back there in that part of the closet,” said Burbrink.