Tuesday, January 4, 2011

A Spider Bit My....Penis!


This was the real deal. A poor 46year old Hispanic male was bit in the penis by a black spider. He went to another hospital initially and was discharged. Below are his nurses notes (pretty humorous). Fyi.... Pt= patient and OSH = outside hospital.

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Note 1: "Spider bite" (states it was a black spider) to penis while sitting on a toilet. States immediately cut his penis with a knife to extract the "venom". Pt was seen at OSF and given hydrocodone for pain and reports thehospital staff thought he was bitten by a human, pt denies this. Pt now reporting pain in abdomen and chest and feels as if his "nerves are tight."
Note 2: Pt to ER for spider bite to penis at 0900 this morning while on the toilet. Pt reports he visualized the spider. Pt was seen at OSF but reports that they believe he is lying and gave him Lortab and tetanus shot. Pt reports he cut the area of his penis to drain it. Pt reports white fluid came out. Pt with small superficial cut noted to penis. No bleeding. Pt reports pain as squeezing of testicles that radiates all the way up to his chest. Pt reports this pain is constant since 11 am. Pt reports vomiting X 1 approx 1 hour after being bitten. Denies nausea at this time. Pt appears anxious at this time. Awaiting MD eval.

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The guy was telling the truth. He was very anxious and his abdomen was rigid, which are true symptoms of a black widow bite. He received some IV muscle relaxants and went home about 6 hours later. I have no follow up to know if his penis fell off.

-ER Doc

6 comments:

arzt4empfaenger said...

Ouch, poor guy! The only thing worse than getting bitten in the penis must be when you're bitten and nobody believes you.

I've once stood up from a toilet to see a kid palm sized spider underneath the toilet seat. Fucking scared me! That was on a holiday in Indonesia, and since then I always check the seats before using them.

Shash said...

That's a horrible way to spend your day. That poor patient. I hope the report gets back to the first hospital that it was indeed a poisonous spider bite.

ERP said...

Never seen one of those - waiting for the day!

Lenny B said...

I took a field sanitation class maaaany moons ago when I was stationed at Ft Polk, LA.

The instructor said that the most common black widow bite on post was on the tip of the penis as they like to hang out under the rim of toilets.

Been checking ever since!

erin said...

My mother was bit on the hand by a black widow three years ago and went through the same thing. She initially went to the ER and was sent home with a scrip for tylenol. That evening she was vomiting, having muscle spasms, headache, the works. We returned to the er and were basically told there was nothing they could do, prescribed a muscle relaxer, and sent her home. She was sick for a week. Beware the BLACK SPIDER!!!

Rural Physician said...

Your story reminded me of something similar had happened in our ER as well in 2009.

Posed here:
http://ruralphysician.blogspot.com/2011/03/pain-down-there.html