Saturday, May 15, 2010

Skinny-dipping tourist bitten on penis by spider

A Canadian tourist suffered heart inflammation after he was bitten on the penis by a venomous spider while swimming nude in New Zealand. The 22-year-old man fell asleep naked on the sand dunes after skinny dipping in Northland, Wellington - then “woke to find his penis swollen and painful with a red mark on the shaft suggestive of a bite”.

He was bitten by a katipo spider which caused generalized muscle pains, fever, headache, photophobia (light sensitivity) and vomiting. "It was a rather nasty, ill-placed bite," Dr Nigel Harrison said.



The man was taken to the Dargaville Hospital where his condition worsened. He developed high blood pressure and chest pains and was treated with antivenin medicine. His heart problems persisted so he was treated at Whangarei Hospital and Auckland Hospital before returning to Canada. “He was discharged after a total of 16 days in hospital. On review he was generally well."

He was the first known person to develop myocarditis - heart inflammation - following a katipo spider bite. The katipo is a small endangered species of spider native to New Zealand. The female has a black body with a white bordered red stripe on its back while the male is white with black stripes and red diamond shaped markings.

6 comments:

Demelza said...

LOL - I was waiting for you to find this story.  And - ouch!!! 

Steve said...

Reminds me of an old joke...

Two fellas are walking in the desert when a rattlesnake lunges and bites one of them on the end of his penis. They don't know what to do so the uninjured man says
"I'll run to town and find a doctor...he'll know what to do!"

He runs into town and finds a doctor and tells him his friend was bitten by a snake and what should he do. The doctor says
"Alright, run back and find the wound. Put your mouth over the wound and suck the poison out and then spit it out. If you don't...he'll die"

The man runs back. His friend says "So what did the doctor say???"

His friend turns and says "You're gonna die"

Arbroath said...

Heh heh!

L said...

Misleading picture.  Those things aren't that big.  (But I'll probably have nightmares now, anyway... and I'm not even a guy!)

Ratz said...

If I spotted that thing biting my dong, I'm sorry to say a second later it'd be even more endangered.

cath said...

Tjhorn, I had the same question. Only thing I can think of is  -- did he fall asleep on top of its nest?