I want to express my sincere condolences to the Lazner family in the devestating loss of their son. I would hope that Matthew's death would not be in vain and bring to the forefront the issue of neucrotic spider bites in the area and the lack of knowledge of the medical field.
My 5 year old daughter was also bit by a brown recluse spider in May 2007 while we think at school down for nap time. There have been many sightings of spiders, most unidentified, and of children "playing around with them" The spiders love the equipment in playgrounds and will hide in the sleeping mats of the kids.
We went to several places for help with the bite. First was the pediatrician who also put my daughter on a topical antibiotic and said it was just a infected area but did not identify as bite. Went to a pediatric dermatologist, they said it was fungal, all the while the bite was growing in size and was horrible. Went to naturopath health advisor, who gave me something called "black salve" or "bloodroot". We applied as directed and within 4 days, the area affected literally fell out of her head. It was horrific. But thanks to the salve it caused the area to expel from her tissue. Thank God! We brought her and the expelled "plug" to our local family doctor who in turn admitted her to the hospital. We were then sent to UAB children's. The doctor's there were puzzled and agreed it was a neucrotic spider bite. They informed me that the medical profession was not well educated on how to handle these cases and would I agree to give them permission to study her case including the time process in which I took pictures daily. Of course I agreed.
If you do a search on brown recluse spider bites, you will see that this issue needs immediate attention. We all have spiders around us and we need to know how to treat and identify these issues.
