Man reveals how he nearly lost his finger after false widow spider bit him while he was sleeping

A man has spoken of how he nearly lost his finger after being bitten by a false widow spider.

Dean Myatt, 58, suffered a horrific wound on his finger in November.

The businessman from Truro in Cornwall was bitten whilst sleeping during the night, by what he originally thought to be an insect.

Although he wasn’t in pain when he woke, the wound “progressively got worse” and after antibiotics failed to work, he rang 111 and was advised to go to A&E.

Dean’s trip to the hospital resulted in a four-night stay and two operations to wash the middle finger on his right hand out from the bite, with a swab revealing he was in fact bitten by a false widow spider.

What is a false widow spider?

The false widow spider has a general resemblance to the much more notorious black widow spider, but is not as harmful.

There are six species of false widow spiders in the UK, which are all black or brown and up to about the size of a small finger-nail, and they tend to hide in cracks in the ground and under stones.

‘Spider-man’

Although the gruesome photos show the horrific nature of the bite, Dean told NationalWorld “the human body is amazing” as, apart from a small scar, the wound has now healed five weeks after the incident.

However, Dean, who said he “nearly lost his finger”, was unable to have a skin graft on his wound due to the tendon on his finger being exposed and the bite restricted movement in his finger.

He has been attending a hand clinic at the hospital on a weekly basis and working with physios to try to restore full movement in his hand.

The spider bite also caused bacteria poisoning, with Dean recently starting a “decolonisation” treatment, which requires a special shampoo, nose and ear drops to be used every day for around a week to clear his body of the bacteria.

While a false widow bite might have been a scary experience at the time, Dean now makes light of the situation, as he says he has already had a Spider-man suit given to him and his friends now refer to him as ‘Spider-man’.

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