subject: Spider Bite Turned Into Deadly Staph Infection! [print this page] Less than 24 hours from the initial bite I was laying in Porter Adventist Hospital, where the surgeon on call quickly arrived. Immediately I was put on an IV to administer antibiotics, and I was told the bite resembled a brown recluse spider. However, this was secondary to what was now a life threatening staph infection. Several hours later, I was released from the hospital with two incisions 4 inches deep and 7 inches wide left open and packed with gauze. For the next month, I would endure the most excruciating pain 3 times per day, while the surgical incisions were packed with gauze and dressed. It is unclear what the direct cause of the Staph infection. After speaking with the doctor, I learned that they see numerous patients a year that think they have a brown recluse spider bite not realizing they have a staph infection. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Staphylococcus aureus, caused more than 94,000 life-threatening infections and nearly 19,000 deaths in the United States in 2005.
