Tourist dies after deadly spider, hiding in restaurant chair, bites man's calf turning it black and leaving him fighting for life in hospital for five days
A tourist has died after a spider, cocooned in a wicker chair, bit the man’s calf spreading its powerful toxin.
The bite left the man fighting for his life before he died as his leg turned black from necrosis. The deadly venomous spider had been nesting in the wicker chair that the man had sat down on in a restaurant in Brazil.
The victim, named only as Vinicius, had been holidaying with six friends in Cairu, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, on July 9 when they stopped for a meal at a beachside restaurant after a boat trip. As Vinicius settled down on a wicker sofa, one friend warned him that the cane chairs are the favourite nesting spot for a local deadly brown spider.
The friend reportedly pointed out a spider's cocoon on the wicker but he sat there anyway. The next day, say his friends, he fell seriously ill with chest pains and breathing difficulties and by the time they got him to hospital the flesh around the bite had begun to turn black.
Hospital pictures show how necrosis had begun to spread over his entire calf as the spider's powerful neurotoxin took hold. Local media reports that he fought for his life for five days but died in hospital on July 14.
One friend, who was not named, said: "It was on this little wicker sofa, man. I even told the guy to take it off. That's their cocoon. He sat on the little sofa and I sat on a separate chair."
The cafe owner, also not named, said: "This has never happened in 20 years, we have not had any news of this, no client came to us, no one looked for us, no one asked for help."
Staff are reportedly checking in-house CCTV security footage to see how and when Vinicius was bitten. It is unclear which spider bit the victim but Brazil's two brown-coloured spiders, the brown widow and the wandering spider, are among the most deadly on Earth.