Sherri Maddox‘s relaxing kayaking trip down Staunton River in Virginia turned into a nightmare when she was bitten on the lip by a venomous spider.
Maddox didn’t realize she had been bitten until the pain became too severe to ignore. It turned out to be a brown recluse spider bite, which is highly venomous and dangerous. The following day, the pain worsened, and Maddox sought medical care.
Initially prescribed antibiotics, the medication did not work as quickly as Maddox had hoped. Instead, the area around her lip continued to swell, and it was clear to Maddox and those around her that her condition was much more severe than originally thought.
As Maddox recounted, “They told me they weren’t sure if I was going to make it, and I thought I wasn’t going to live through the night when they first told me. It looked like a big ol’ balloon on my face.”
Maddox was quickly admitted to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with a brown recluse spider bite. She was given antibiotics to kill off any remaining bacteria from the spider’s venomous fangs and underwent surgery on her lip to remove the dead tissue from the area. She was fighting for her life as she battled through hallucinations and hospitalization to cope with the venom coursing through her body, making her lip swell up multiple times its original size.
Reflecting on her experience, Maddox said, “I’m almost 50, and I’ve been floating in the Staunton River since I could swim, six years old. I was just praying I wasn’t going to die because I hear horror stories, and you look on the internet and see all this stuff.” Fortunately, Maddox pulled through and survived. She feels extremely lucky to be alive today.
Maddox encourages anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation to seek help immediately to hopefully prevent something like this from happening again. “If you think there’s anything wrong with your body, go see somebody because if I didn’t go see somebody, anything could have happened.”
The experience was a harrowing one for Maddox, and it serves as a reminder to all of us that we should always take even the smallest health concerns seriously. Maddox‘s spider bite could have turned into a tragic incident had she not sought medical care when she did. It’s a reminder that we should always trust our instincts and seek help when we need it.
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Source: AWM
