Funnel-web bit boy who suffered seizures before 12 vials of antivenene took effect
A TEN-year-old boy bitten by a deadly funnel-web spider needed 12 vials of antivenene to survive — the most ever administered.
NSW
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A TEN-year-old boy bitten by a deadly funnel-web spider needed 12 vials of antivenene to survive — the most administered in Australian history.
Matthew Mitchell was helping his dad clean up the back shed of their Berkeley Vale property on Monday night when he was bitten on the finger by a spider hidden in a shoe.
“It sort of clawed onto me and all the legs and everything crawled around my finger and I couldn’t get it off,” the youngster said.
Matthew eventually managed to flick the arachnid off with his other hand but not before letting out a “yelp”, his dad David said.
“It landed a few feet away from me so I knew exactly what it was,” Mr Mitchell said.
Mr Mitchell, his wife Shelly and Matthew’s older sister Natasha piled into their car and headed to the nearby doctor’s clinic.
It was shut so they went straight to the after-hours chemist at Killarney Vale.
They had taken his T-shirt off him and used it as a compression bandage with Natasha, 17, calling 000 from the car about 6pm.
The Year 6 student from Brooke Avenue Public School was rushed to Gosford Hospital where his symptoms worsened. His eyes dilated, he started sweating and frothing from the mouth.
He even went into seizures before doctors administered 12 vials of antivenene.
The spider was taken to the Australian Reptile Park.
Australian Reptile Park general manager Tim Faulkner said Matthew was “as lucky as they get”.
He said the zoo would invite him up to the park when he was well enough to receive a “Spiderman bravery award” after becoming a member of an exclusive club — a funnel-web survivor — that no one willingly wants to join.
February and March is the peak breeding season and Mr Faulkner said recent rains followed by hot days were driving males — five times more venomous than females — out in force.
The spider which bit Matthew will become part of the park’s milking program.
Mr Mitchell said the family agreed to share Matthew’s remarkable near-death experience in an effort “to spread the message” about always checking shoes, gardening gloves and washing left out overnight for spiders before putting them on.
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