ST. LOUIS – Harry Bell is sharing his frightening ordeal after being bitten by a brown recluse spider.
Bell was bitten last week on his left leg, most likely in the middle of the night.
“I, for sure, thought it was just a mosquito bite or a bug bite,” he said. “Thought it was nothing as serious as a brown recluse. But with my leg starting to necrotize, it was kind of a confirmed brown recluse bite by all the nurses and doctors.”
Bell’s case quickly turned serious, requiring a six-day hospital stay.
Jennifer Bell, Harry’s mother, said he suffered a secondary infection on top of the bite.
“From what I understand, that’s what caused the cellulitis or the reddening of the leg,” she said.
The bite became a tissue-killing case.
“The poison affected my red blood cells and started killing them off, so then they did a blood transfusion on Saturday,” Bell said. “I felt so much better.”
According to Dan Zarlenga of the Missouri Department of Conservation, the spider resembles its namesake.
“…as the name implies, kind of a brownish, yellowish, next session color,” he said. “But they also have what looks like a violin or cello on the top orange back and that’s what tells you it’s a brown recluse that you got.”