Doctors seeing something new with spider bites - 14 News, WFIE, Evansville, Henderson, Owensboro

Doctors seeing something new with spider bites

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  • Tuesday, June 18 2013 8:30 AM EDT2013-06-18 12:30:38 GMT
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There's something new going on with brown recluse bites and it has local doctors very alarmed. In fact, a little boy had the fight of his life after he recently got very sick and had to be hospitalized at Vanderbilt.

We've all heard about those nasty brown recluse bites that can get real ugly, but, doctors are now seeing more and more patients with systemic reactions, particularly life-threatening bleeding. And they don't know why it's happening. 

Vanderbilt Emergency Medicine Expert Dr. Donna Seger, M.D., just treated the little boy who had severe hemolysis, which means he was badly bleeding on the inside of his body when brown recluse venom started attacking his red blood cells.

The good news is, she saved the boy's life with several blood transfusions. He's now at home and expected to make a full recovery. Dr. Seger wants other families to realize, if you or your little one start getting sick directly after being bit, you need to get to a doctor as soon as possible.

The symptoms you need to watch for are fever, rash, dark urine and just feeling bad.

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