06 October 2023 , 17:27
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A mum has revealed how a false widow spider bite may have saved her baby's life after the fang marks led medics to discover a hidden mass growing in the tot's chest.
Kourtney Haynes faced every parent's worst nightmare when they discovered the UK's most dangerous spider had crawled into six-month-old Bentley's crib and bit him as he slept last month. The 25-year-old, who lives in Great Oakley, Essex, rushed her tiny tot to Colchester Hospital where medics identified it as a spider bite and worked together to "drain the poison" out of Bentley's body.
But hospital staff never expected to discover a hard mass the "size of a golf ball" growing under Bentley's left nipple, and said they would need to operate to remove it once the tot had battled the bite's infection. Kourtney says that thankfully the growth was found to be non-cancerous, but she fears it could have eventually turned cancerous if left untreated.
Mum Kourtney with little Bentley (Kennedy News and Media)
The baby has holes where the spider put its fangs (Kennedy News and Media)The worried mum admits that the bite itself "risked Bentley's life" - but says she is thankful too as she said they would never have found the mass without the bite. Kourtney said: "I went to bathe the baby and saw a bloody discharge on his vest. I stripped him and saw a green/brown bruise on the outside of his nipple.
"I took him downstairs to my nan because she's a nurse. I thought it could be a gnat bite but she said gnat bites don't tend to bruise. He was a bit unsettled during the night but I thought it was because he was teething. He wasn't drinking his bottles properly, he didn't eat breakfast, he had a temperature. I thought he was a bit run down, until I noticed the marks.
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
"I took him to Colchester Hospital at about 1pm and they noticed straight away it was a false widow bite. There were two individual little needle pricks which were the fang marks from the spider. It hadn't crossed my mind that it could be a spider bite. I was shocked, I was really worried.
False widows have a venomous bite (PA)"It must've happened during the night because I bathed him the night before and didn't notice anything." Kourtney said hospital staff drained the spider poison out of Bentley's body - and were undertaking more checks when they noticed a suspicious lump under his nipple.
Kourtney, who is also mum to eight-year-old Alfie, said the spider potentially saved her son's life - but said her tiny tot isn't out of the woods yet. Kourtney said: "I'm an emotional wreck at the moment - I'm exhausted. The spider bite has kind of risked his life but at the same time saved it."