What happened to a Massachusettes 5-year-old is something out of every parent’s nightmare. Something that threatens the life of your child and you didn’t even see it coming.
Thankfully, that nightmare is over for Kristine Donovan as her daughter Kailyn is now recovering after being bit by a black widow spider in her own yard.
“She never even said anything had bit her,” Donovan told Boston Globe. “We assumed it was outside in our backyard. We haven’t gone anywhere, so it had to have probably been in our backyard.”
Donovan first noticed a tiny purple bruise on the back of their daughter’s leg and decided to keep an eye on it. However, that bruise soon grew a large red line so Donavan decided to take Kailyn to a doctor.
That doctor diagnosed her with cellulitis, a common skin infection and told her it was a spider bite. They just didn’t know what kind of spider bite.
The bruise didn’t respond to antibiotics and eventually turned black. That’s when Kailyn was taken to the UMass Memorial Medical Center where Donovan found out she was bitten by the black widow.
The purple skin was Kailyn’s cells dying, a condition called necrosis. Thankfully, her infection was only “superficial.”
Donovan plans to spray her yard with pesticide and call in an exterminator to treat the house to get rid of any other harmful spiders in the area. She decided to share her story so that other parents are warned and protect their children.
“If you think it’s something, just keep looking for an answer,” Donovan told WCVB. “I kind of had a feeling it was pretty bad, and I just kept kind of pushing to have it checked out.”
Kailyn’s father, a firefighter and paramedic, was shocked by the discovery.
“I didn’t know what to say,” Donovan told WCVB. “It’s not something you would expect, especially in Massachusetts. I’ve never seen it.”
The Regional Center for Poison Control and Prevention says that although it’s rare to see a black widow in New England, it’s not unheard of, according to the Washington Post.
Black widows have small black bodies and red hourglass-like shaped spots. They are mostly found in the South and West and hide in outdoor spaces like barns, sheds, and woodpiles.
Their bites are very subtle and can feel like a pinprick. Symptoms of a black widow bite include nausea, vomiting, cramps, numbness, weakness, trouble breathing, and seizures. Death from these bites are very rare, but possible, and one who believes they’ve been bitten by a black window should seek immediate attention.
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