Chris Keegan, 40, woke up with a small insect bite on his right hand and initially thought nothing of it – but he was left hospitalised after it turned into a flesh-eating infection
A bloke ended up in hospital with a flesh-eating bug after what appeared to be a “pinprick” false widow spider bite caused his hand to balloon to “the size of a bowling ball”. Chris Keegan, 40, awoke to discover a tiny insect bite on his right hand and initially dismissed it as nothing serious.
However, when it started turning red, he consulted a pharmacist who gave him antibiotics for what was diagnosed as a spider bite. A second course of antibiotics from his GP also failed to halt the redness, prompting Chris to rush to hospital after his hand “swelled up and turned purple.”
Within hours, Chris was undergoing surgery to remove necrotising tissue and prevent the infection from spreading. He then remained in hospital for five days having multiple operations on his hand before being discharged with six stitches and permanent scarring.
This week’s BBC Countryfile reported that the false widow is “rapidly spreading its legs across Britain” following a “rapid expansion across the world”.
Chris, an actor and escape room designer from Coventry, explained: “Something so tiny and trivial if ignored could have led to my thumb or hand being removed, or sepsis could have set in.
“They don’t know if the bite was the infection or if the bite was the catalyst for the infection to take hold. Some people are hypothesising that it could have been a false widow spider but in reality, we don’t know.”
Nearly 100 people required hospital treatment for spider bites across the UK in 2024, with Chris’ wound initially appearing no bigger than a “pinhead.”
He explained: “It was the size of a pinhead -it looked like the head of a pin near the joint. It was just a little insect bite on the back of my hand.
“I decided to go to a pharmacist when it went red. They said it was a spider bite, very rare at this time of year but they gave me antibiotics.”
Chris grew increasingly worried when his hand ballooned in size after the medication proved ineffective, prompting him to seek hospital care.
Chris, who first told his tale through Sell Us Your Story, revealed: “Just a day later my whole hand swelled up like a boxing glove.
“The bite itself was purple, swollen and almost ruptured. It was very painful – my whole hand was red, swollen, and warm.
“Whatever the infection was seemed to be antibiotic resistant. My hand was containing the infection.
“I took myself to hospital and within five hours I was x-rayed and had my hand on an operating table, and they were cutting out large chunks of puss and skin. I was awake through all of the surgeries.
“I felt weirdly removed because they numb the nerve clusters in your armpit – they were going quite deep into the hand to make sure there was no necrotising soft tissue.”
Chris is currently recovering at home.