A man from Manteca, California claims a spider bite was responsible for curing his paraplegia.
He'd been paralyzed since crashing his motorcycle in 1988. He claims a brown recluse spider bite put him in the hospital and then in rehab, where nurses discovered he had feeling in his legs. After months of physical therapy, he's walking again.
It's an amazing story, but I'm a little skeptical about one part: I doubt there was a spider.
Brown recluse spiders don't live in northern California, especially not in the cities. The only recluse spiders we have are desert recluses found in southern Cal scrublands and the high desert.
We do have MRSA, however. I'm more inclined to think he had some sort of staph infection rather than a spider bite. They can look the same. Indeed, unless you have the offending spider in hand it's probably better than 50/50 odds that your "spider bite" is really a skin infection.
As far as the spider curing his paralysis, well, I hope he's not really claiming that. I hope his point is that without the spider bite -- or infection, whatever -- that he wouldn't have been back at the hospital or in rehab. If that's his story, I'll agree.
- Spider Bite Symptoms
- Gallery of Spider Bite Pictures
- MRSA Facts
- Spider bite sets miracle in motion for Mantecan - The Manteca Bulletin
| | Twitter | Newsletter Signup | First Aid Forum | |
Hi! I’m a Brown Recluse spider. I decided to go to California after hitching a ride in someone’s luggage. Am sorry to hear that you don’t like the idea of my being in Northern Calif, nor that my bite might have cured the paralysis of that man – just like a lot of Homeopathic Doctors have been saying for quite some time.
Mr. Spider, I don’t believe your story. It just doesn’t have a ring of truth, you know? In places where your cousins live — like the southeastern states — thousands of brown recluses live in each home and still the bites are extremely rare.
The idea that one stray spider slips into a suitcase and survives the trip to California only to bite an unsuspecting paraplegic (who probably wasn’t the one traveling to a southeastern state in the first place) and cure his paralysis is just not believable.
I find it much more likely that a staph infection sends the poor guy to the hospital, where it is discovered that some regrowth of his nerves has opened a window to recovery. Good for him. However, you, Mr. Spider, cannot lay claim to this miraculous turn of events.
Ah, Rod, you’re such a killjoy!
Well, Mr. Spider, or, may I call you Recluse…if you claim to be able to cure paralysis, how can you really prove it. Do you have similar stories of miraculous recovery that you might be able to share with us? If so, please come to my home in Nuevo, CA and I will make you the most famous spider on the planet.
All I can say is, I’m just resistant to the whole idea of a cure in this case.
MR. S.A. Jerm
This article is the dumbest thing i’ve ever read online. I quote:
“A man from Manteca, California claims a spider bite was responsible for curing his paraplegia.”
then you say,
“As far as the spider curing his paralysis, well, he’s not really claiming that.”
WTH was the point of this article? To say a guy lied, then list the probabilities of why it’s a lie, and then admit he never lied?
You wrote this article presumably to denounce the perpetuation of misinformation. How can you denounce it if you are not only contributing to it, but actually ADDING to it? You sir, are a complete hack.
Well rukidding, if this is the dumbest thing you’ve read online, I suspect you’ve just recently discovered the internet.
In my area, this story managed to get legs on all the broadcast networks as well as several local newspapers. I’m now seeing it on international news sites popular in Europe. In almost every case, the gist of the reporting is that this gentleman was “cured” by a spider bite.
In all the coverage I’ve seen, I haven’t actually heard (or read a quote by) the patient saying the bite cured him. I can’t say that he is giving the bite credit for his recovery. The various news organizations, however, are certainly portraying it that way.
OMG – apparently you don’t read very carefully so let me explain this one more time.
Yes, the news irresponsibly intimated that it was the bite that cured him but they never said that’s what the guy claimed, nor did the guy claim it himself. You however did say he claimed it.
“A man from Manteca, California claims a spider bite was responsible for curing his paraplegia.”
That’s not a quote from someone else – that was your own statement. That statement is a complete falsehood. He never claimed it and to say that he did is factually wrong. What’s worse is that you KNOW he never said it as you state at the end of your article. So which is it? He claimed it or he didn’t claim it?
This is actually worse then the exaggerated insinuations you are trying to debunk because you fabricated a “claim” as a statement of fact.
I’ve been online before HTML 1.0. I’ve been online before Yahoo was an idea in Jerry Yang’s head. I’ve skimmed through about 2000 diggs a day for about the last 2 years so I’ve hardly “just recently discovered the internet”. I’ve seen lots of dumb things online by people who didn’t know they were being dumb. You however knew better and did it anyways and actually contradicted your own statement in your own article. That makes you the dumbest.
Wow, that’s some pretty harsh criticism. Would you mind if I read some of your articles?
Yes, I agree, let’s read your articles…..
I find it interesting but not surprising that there have been 3 responses to what i wrote in some form of opposition obfuscating the issue with irrelevancies and yet not one refuted the single point i made.
Reason: no one can because what i pointed out is unequivocally true. That is not arrogance, that is just simple logic. “A” and “not A” cannot be asserted at the same time and make sense – something any 3rd grader can understand but apparently some adults have trouble accepting.
You may not like the delivery, but you should be arguing the argument, not the manner in which it’s delivered.
What i may or may not have written in the past to prove my own skill at “whatever” with a writing sample is completely irrelevant to whether or not my point is correct with the issue at hand.
This venue is not a personal blog for the writer to muse on at a whim. This is About.com where people come to get accurate information about various topics. The author has an obligation to research, and write accurately about the information they disseminate.
1) Any less is irresponsible or just plain lazy.
2) Knowingly writing something false is just wrong.
3) Writing something to dispel a misconception by starting with a bigger misconception is hypocritical x2.
4) Clouding the issue rather then making a retraction or correcting the obvious error is childish.
*)Asking to “read some of [my] articles” as if that would negate the validity of my point… i don’t even know where to begin with how dumb that is.
Writers on this site have an responsibility to write informative, accurate articles… not cater to their ego with personal rants about what they think is probably true or false and especially not to compound perceived lies with actual lies.
That’s it… i’ve already wasted 10 more minutes of my life then i wanted to on this. I wash my hands of this.
Boy, rukidding. You sure are a buzz kill! I wouldn’t invite you to any of my cocktail parties.
Rukidding, I really don’t think Rod meant for this post to be in accordance with the strictest codes of investigative journalism. If one wanted to, they could pick apart his posts/comments as well as your comments and find faulty logic in either. I think Rod mainly wanted to convey that this story does not add up and there may be many things that are not mentioned that could have been factors leading to his recovery.
It is a great story and I think it’s positive to hear this much additional dialogue on it. If anything, I would like to see the one of the major newsgroups or a research/health organization look into this case further and see if this can be replicated in any way with a different person.
spider bite, staph, or what not, it’s pretty interesting that this guy has been paralyzed for 20 years (well thats the story we get) and the story seems to indicate that he has had no feeling or use of his legs that whole time, yet after this incident he suddenly has feeling and has started to learn to walk again. I wonder what the whole story is, as a med student I wonder what the verdict is fromt he doctors as to why he is no longer paralyzed. regrowth of nerves?…hmph, I dunno bout that….
Ok, rukidding, you win. You’ve made a valid point about my contradictory statement, and there’s no way I can argue your point that “About.com (is) where people come to get accurate information about various topics.”
Touché!
For those of you just joining us, you may read the opposing viewpoints — my post being a victim of too little sleep — on rukidding’s comment above. The original post has been edited to what I actually meant to say.
However, on this point I must disagree: “Writers on this site have an [sic] responsibility to write informative, accurate articles… not cater to their ego [sic] with personal rants about what they think is probably true or false.”
I don’t take issue with the informative, accurate part, but with the personal part. My rant is about the dissemination of inaccurate and potentially dangerous “cures” for heretofore incurable conditions. It is absolutely my job to point out the silly and absurd.
I hope in all your (appropriate if not somewhat vitriolic) criticism of my writing style that you appreciate the absurdity of the claim that a single spider would find itself 1,500 miles from its native habitat to bite a paraplegic man and cure his paralysis.
Indeed, the claim has taken on sacred proportions by some at this point, and very real dangers lurk around the dark corners of pseudoscience and unbridled mythology.
You people are all [No personal attacks please - Rod]. Rukidding may have been harsh but his argument is absolutely 100% correct. The media may have mislead people into initially thinking the bite and recovery were directly linked for the sake of piquing interest but if you actually watch any news clip on the event, they never said that and neither did the patient. Rukidding’s point was that Rod should have never stated that the patient claimed the spider bite cured his paraplegia and in making a false statement like that is even worse sensationalism then what the news outlets are guilty of.
The real story is the patient got bitten by what he thought was a brown recluse, he went to the hospital, they treated him, he went to therapy for the bite, a nurse discovered his nerves actually still worked – still being the operative word meaning they were never dead to begin with.
Whether or not it was a brown recluse has little practical relevance. It may have been, he may have been mistaken. Rod correctly pointed out that brown recluse aren’t native to that area but just because it isn’t native doesn’t mean that it’s not possible or even probable. Spiders from South America make their way to the US in shipments of bananas all the time – why would it be so hard to believe a brown recluse made it from New Mexico the California. Whatever the case, it doesnt matter. What does matter is that there is no known venom or drug or chemical or Frankenstein-lightening or anything else that can reanimate dead nerves or cells for that matter. Think about it, if there were the world would already be populated with zombies.
Christian – you don’t need to adhere to the strictest of journalistic code to know that you shouldn’t make stuff up. As far as Rukidding’s logic, i don’t see any fault with it. And if you think this story warrants serious medical research, you completely missed Rukidding’s and Rod’s point. Btw, i have a bridge in Brooklyn i’d like to sell you.
Phillygal actually eluded to the only interesting part of the story which is why the on earth this guy did not notice earlier that his legs worked again and what happened between 1988 and now that changed like maybe reduction in swelling on the spinal cord possibly.
Phillygal, you and marke m have correctly pointed out the biggest mystery here is how the man could have had any spinal cord regeneration at all assuming his paralysis was complete. I can only say I’m not sure.
However, to Phillygal’s doubts about nerve regrowth, there have been some interesting findings about the hardiness of CNS neurological tissue in recent years. Lu, P, et al found that CNS axon regeneration was possible even through tough scar tissue without medical assistance (although genetically modified neuro tissue provided better results).
I have no way of knowing if this gentleman’s progress is a case of underassessment or true recovery, but I believe we do ourselves a disservice to deny the possibility that axon regeneration can occur.
Due to a spider bite? Maybe. Due to a brown recluse spider bite? Not in northern California.
To marke m, while I hope this patient did not make the claims that have been assigned to him, I am skeptical since the species of spider is specific. I doubt a journalist would take that much liberty with the details of the story. Indeed, had just one journalist made such a leap, the story would not have been the spider-bite-driven recovery of neurological dysfunction, but of a lack of journalistic integrity.
My 23 yr. old son was in a hit & run motorcycle accident 4/21/08 (on his way to work). The pickup truck that ran the stop sign & pulled out in front of him ran over his lower back (my son had been working 6 – 7 days a week 10-14 hrs. a day and loved his job). Thank God for the kevlar jacket he was wearing or he would have been dead. He is now paralyzed from the waist down, his spinal cord was not cut or torn and I know in my heart that even though the surgeon said some people come back from this and walk again and some don’t, I made by son a promise that day when he said “mama, I want to walk again” I told him that I taught him once and it will be a long hard road but I will teach him again. He had no brain injury Thank God, but had broken ribs, collapsed lung, broken and crushed vertebrae and a broken nose. We have come a long way in the last 11 months and have learned much. My days are very long and nights are very short but I am his sole caregiver, it’s tough but I would not have it any other way.
OK NOW……having stated our story….I wish to say I hope this spider bite “WILL BE RESEARCHED AND INVESTIGATED”. I am not saying that I believe it 100 percent, but you know what? I’m not saying I don’t. There are so many possibilities in this world. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if there is something to this? God Bless you all……and if you say prayers please remember mabear and her son.
I would like to this share if possible? My girlfriend 4 days ago crawled up in her attic and was bitten on the left side of her forehead at the hair line. The bit bubbled up like blister (quick). Within minutes, a knot about the size of a quarter rose up. I got on line and pulled up Brown Recluse Bites and viewed photos & treatments. “Nothing” very positive about each case. As a Medic in Vietnam, I’ve treated to date as follows and it’s working; She took 2 Amoxicillin 500/125mg and 1 every 6 hours after. Popped the bubble and cleaned area w/ Isopropyl Alcohol. Hydrogen Peroxide for infection. Triple Antibiotic Ointment on a band-aid and covered the wound. Within a couple hours we checked the wound to find a (hole) filled with a creamy looking substance. Note; a photo of a mans leg, showed the same thing but it was advised (not) to remove it or damaged skin tissue that was starting (around) the wound. I decide to move it and clean the area, apply the peroxide and recover with the ointment. Repeated these treatments 3 time a day. In 4 days, the knot has gone to less then an 1/2″in Dia and the peeling stopped the second day. The whole closed from an estimated 3/16″ in Dia to less then 1/8″ x 3/16″ with a scab. Note; 3 days of treatments included removing the (creamy) substance. “I believe”, that is what causes the most damage if left in the wound (but), I’m just a medic.
Just because it may not be a typical place for brown recluse spiders to be, dosent mean they aren’t there. They are not just in southern states.. I was bite by a brown recluse spider almost 5 years ago in Massachusetts, 7 minutes south of Boston..in the winter.. go figure. I hadn’t ever heard of or known about brown recluse spiders around my area, but after I was bit I was told about multible other brown recluse bites that had been treated around massachusetts, new hampshire, and even in maine. They are predominantly known in the sounthern states because they thrive in warmer weather, but they can be found in every state.. and bites from them are not a rare occurance as you suggest.