In case one horrible spider story a day isn’t enough, here’s another. A London man’s leg bursted open after he was bitten by a spider on an airplane.
You read that sentence correctly.
Jonathon Hogg was taking a flight from Qatar to South Africa in June when he claims a brown recluse spider bit him on the leg. “I was struggling to get comfortable during the journey and crossed my legs to get into a better position,” Hogg told the Guardian, “when I felt a small, sharp pain radiating in my left leg.” He turned on the light, and saw a spider crawl across the floor. Two flight attendants yelled, “SPIDER,” which is a super helpful thing to scream in a claustrophobic space, and when the plane landed, Hogg’s leg had already “swelled up and became bruised.” Don’t worry, it gets worse.
Within hours, the 40-year-old’s leg had ballooned and turned black; by the time he reached hospital it was “bursting open.”
Hogg said: “The pain was like nothing I’ve been through in my life. By the time I got to hospital my leg was bursting open, there was pus, it was black. It was a right mess. They told me if I had been any later I would have lost my leg or even died. It was terrifying.” (Via)
During surgery, doctors “cut away a large part of his leg where the venom had eaten the flesh.” I could go the rest of my life without reading the sentence “venom had eaten the flesh” again. Hogg, who described his flesh-wounds as “something out of a horror film,” spent a month in the hospital.
Hogg has been told he may need another operation after learning that the skin graft has not taken. He is contemplating legal action against QatarAirways, which he says has refused to accept responsibility.
He said: “They have made no attempt to resolve the issue and have basically said it was nothing to do with them. All this has left me very traumatised but determined to seek justice. No one should have to go through what I have and if the airline has made a mistake it should take responsibility.” (Via)
“I was devastated,” Hogg said in the understatement of the year.
(In case you hate yourself, here’s what the leg looked like. NSFL.)
(Via the Guardian)