I’m amazed to read of how a brown recluse spider‘s bite – usually feared, with long-lasting nasty side-effects – actually helped someone!
He has been confined to a wheelchair for 20 years. Now a paraplegic man is walking again, and his doctors call it a miracle. CBS13 went to Manteca to find out how a spider bite helped get him back on his feet.
“I closed my eyes and then I was spinning like a flying saucer,” explains David Blancarte.
A motorcycle accident almost killed David 21 years ago. At the time he might have wished he was dead.
“I asked my doctor, ‘Sir what happened? I can’t feel my legs’,” said David.
Ever since, David’s been relying on his wheelchair to get around. Then the spider bite. A Brown Recluse sent him to the hospital, then to rehab for eight months.
“I’m here for a spider bite. I didn’t know I would end up walking,” says David.
A nurse noticed David’s leg spasm and ran a test on him.
“When they zapped my legs, I felt the current, I was like ‘whoa’ and I yelled,” he says.
He felt the current and the rush of a renewed sense of hope.
“She says,’your nerves are alive. They’re just asleep’,” explained David.
Five days later David was walking.
“I was walking on the bar back and forth,” he said.
Now David is out of the hospital and on his feet and walking.
David basks in his glory and gives a ray of hope to other hoping to walk again. The 48-year-old former boxer and dancer is taking it in stride, knowing his best days are still ahead.
David’s dream is to see his 14-year-old twin daughters grow up and get married so he can walk them down the aisle and have that first dance.
Now there’s a lovely story to round out Friday the 13th! Congratulations to Mr. Blancarte, and may his dream come true.
Peter
I submit an alternative explanation for Mr. Blnacarte’s recovery.
“When they zapped my legs, I felt the current, I was like ‘whoa’ and I yelled,” he says.
That to me suggests they use something like a tazer to neutralise the spider venom.
And here in Paraguay many people use only a tazer to treat snake bites (on humans and on livestock). It has proven to be more effective than serum injections. Some even use an electrical fence or a spark plug lead.
So the question is: Was the recovery caused by the spider bite? Or was it caused by the electrical shock? Though I admit that the latter was applyed because of the former.
This could be the subject for some scientific dissertation. 😉
Peter, sorry that I forgot to sign my name to the previous comment. Can you add my name to it and delete this comment?
Mario
Mario, I can’t edit comments – only approve or delete them. I’ve left your second comment up to record your authorship of the first.
Thanks for an interesting perspective on the use of electricity to fight venom. I must read more about this.