Some call it the violin spider, others the brown recluse – but whatever you call it, pray you don’t encounter it on a flight.
A Mississippi man is suing American Airlines, saying he almost lost his thumb after a brown recluse spider (or violin spider; they are the same) bit him aboard a flight in 2016.
It’s the second known bite on an aircraft attributed to this type of spider, the previous one being on a flight to South Africa, when a British lawyer told UK media how his leg “burst open” after he was bitten by a brown recluse.
In the latest case, the one in the US, Marcus Fleming says he was seated on an Air Wisconsin flight (a regional carrier contracted to fly for American under the American Eagle brand until earlier this year) and waiting to take off from the airport in Jackson, Mississippi in September 2016.
According to a lawsuit filed in US federal court last week and cited by the Dallas Morning News, by the time Fleming landed, his hand was in extreme pain and his thumb had changed colour.
He underwent emergency surgery to avoid having his thumb amputated, the lawsuit says.
The venom of the brown recluse spider can sometimes cause hideous open wounds.
In his lawsuit, Fleming alleges American was negligent in failing to inspect the aircraft for dangerous conditions. He seeks USD 500,000 in damages to cover medical expenses, pain, suffering and emotional distress. The suit also names the takeoff airport as a defendant.
The brown recluse or violin spider (Loxosceles reclusa) is a species of spider native to North America.
Fleming said he told a flight attendant he had been bitten, but she thought it was probably just a mosquito.
In 2015, a British barrister named Jonathon Hogg was reported to be preparing to sue Qatar Airways, alleging he was bitten by a violin spider on one of its flights, leading to ghastly and agonising “flesh eating” injuries to his leg.
According to a report in Britain’s Daily Express, Hogg had been flying between Qatar and South Africa after a five-week holiday in Australia, when the violin spider struck.
“I turned on the light and clearly saw a spider running across the floor before hearing two stewardesses screaming ‘Spider!’” Hogg recounted.
Surgeons had to cut a big chunk out of Hogg’s leg to stop the infection spreading and doctors in South Africa diagnosed a brown recluse bite. The pain was unbearable.
Wikipedia says the brown recluse or violin spider (Loxosceles reclusa) is a species of spider native to North America.
“The range lies roughly south of a line from southeastern Nebraska through southern Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana to southwestern Ohio. In the southern states, it is native from central Texas to western Georgia and north to Kentucky.
“The bite frequently is not felt initially and may not be immediately painful, but it can be serious. The brown recluse bears a potentially deadly hemotoxic venom. Most bites are minor with no necrosis [death of tissue]. However, a small number of brown recluse bites do produce severe dermonecrotic lesions (i.e. necrosis); an even smaller number produce severe cutaneous (skin) or viscerocutaneous (systemic) symptoms.”
Written by Peter Needham
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