Last Tuesday evening, an 11-month old from Caesarea was rushed to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center's pediatric emergency room, after her parents realized that she had been bitten by a black spider. The fear that it was a black widow spider and the fact that the baby started writhing in pain were a red flag, and they drove immediately to the emergency room.
"They came to the emergency room with the spider, and it was good that they did," said Dr. Adi Klein, Director of the Pediatrics Department. "In the emergency room we realized that we were evidently dealing with a black widow spider, and we immediate began palliative care, including administration of fluid to maintain normal blood pressure and pain killers, because the baby quickly developed a severe response: swelling of the hands, marked restlessness, tremors along with sweating and muscle spasms. Later she developed a rash on her limbs and constant paid due to muscle spasms. The treatment administered to the baby was to flush the toxin from her body with fluids, and administer muscle relaxants to ease the spasms and alleviate the severe pain. It goes without saying that getting to the emergency room quickly along with the spider were critical, because this was a poisonous spider whose bite could lead to systemic harm and even death."
Dr. Klein continued to say that according to the parents, only a few minutes passed between the time of the bite and their decision to rush to the hospital. The parents said that the baby was sitting in the living room eating dinner with the entire family, when the mother realized she was holding something black and was about to put it in her mouth. When her older brother tried to remove the "thing" from her hand, a black spider "the size of a small coin" jumped out of her hand and on to the floor. At the same time, the girl started writhing in pain and "looked like she was in shock." Her father trapped the spider in a box, and together with a neighbor who came by, checked the internet to see what kind of spider they were dealing with. When the parents realized it might be a black widow, they got into the car and raced to the pediatric emergency room at Hillel Yaffe.
"In the emergency room, it appeared that the baby had developed physical symptoms of restlessness, tremors and sweating, which supported the diagnosis that this was not your ordinary spider," said Dr. Klein.
The spider the parents brought into the Hillel Yaffe Emergency Room
While there is an antivenin to treat this type of bite, after consultation with the Israel National Poison Information Center, it was decided to administer palliative treatment that includes, as previously mentioned, fluids to flush out the toxin and maintain normal blood pressure, a tranquilizer and pain killers, because the antivenin itself has side effects that could lead to an acute, and even life-threatening, allergic reaction. The treatment improved the condition of the baby, who is now recovering in the Pediatrics Department, and will evidently be discharged in the next few days.
The presence of a black widow spider in Israel and inside a home is very rare, and its not clear how the spider got to Caesarea and into the family's home. However, Dr. Klein calls on parents to pay attention to any odd bug and certainly to any unusual development of any bite, as well as reactions such as a change in the child's general condition after a bite, tremors, significant swelling around the bite, etc.
"It goes without saying that the parent's alertness as well as the fact that they came with the spider, and the quick treatment given to the girl saved her life," said Dr. Klein.
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