A man ended up in hospital after being bitten by a spider – but not for the reason that you might think.
It was just a regular day for Zachary Harakas, who had been out gardening in his backyard when he felt a spider bite his right leg – which he says is something that ‘nobody thinks about’.
Over the following days, however, the dad-of-three from Missouri in the US saw some alarming changes.
Zachary Harakas from Missouri had to be rushed to hospital (GoFundMe)
He noticed that his leg had begun to swell and in an even more disturbing development, his leg was beginning to turn green and rot, The Daily Mail reports.
Zachary was then rushed to hospital where medics realised that was suffering from necrotizing fasciitis – which is a rare condition where tissue starts to die after getting infected with ‘flesh-eating’ bacteria.
According to The Cleveland Clinic, insect bites are amongst the causes of the condition, including scrapes, burns or cuts, and puncture wounds.
And ‘time is of the essence’ when receiving such a diagnosis, according to
Dr Andrew Benedict, the surgery program director at Saint Luke’s hospital, so medics had to act quick to save Zachary’s leg.
Doctors initially thought Zachary had been bitten by a brown recluse spider. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
This meant removing chunks of dead tissue from his leg in an attempt to isolate the infection. He also ended up staying in the hospital for a week and receiving multiple surgeries to rebuild his leg, KSHB reports.
Dr Benedict said that he came in ‘extremely sick’.
He continued to say: “The initial thought was, could this be a brown recluse spider bite? Sometimes spider bites can cause a local reaction, and it can cause actually death of the skin.
“In Zachary’s case, it didn’t cause death of the skin. It just caused death of the tissue underneath the skin.”
While Zachary is recovering and doctors say it won’t impact him much in the long run, they added that had he been brought in one day later, he might not have survived the ordeal.
He has been in and out of surgery (KSHB)
Benedict said: “He should have no loss of motor function. For example, he should be able to walk and live a normal life.”
Zachary was left shaken up by the ordeal, telling KSHB: “Just outside, in the outside world, spider bite, nobody thinks about a spider bite.”
In addition to his health, Zachary has also been left worrying about his cleaning business.
He said: “It’s not that I don’t appreciate this vacation, but so I own a small company, and with me in here, there’s no income because I can’t be out there making it.”
Zachary’s family have since set up a GoFundMe to support him while he is unable to work.
Calling the ordeal ‘life altering’, they wrote: “Zachary will be in the hospital and out of work for weeks, possibly months, and will require plastic surgery to completely close the wound later down the road.”
So far, the post has hit $3,000 of it’s $10,000 goal – you can donate here.