Mother of 4 fighting for her life after multiple spider bites during campfire

WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE, via CNN Newsource) —

A Kansas mother is fighting for her life after a spider bite at Cheney Lake turned into a life-changing medical emergency.

On May 28, Britagne Miller said she and her family were at the lake enjoying a campfire when multiple spiders crawled all over her, leaving bites all over her body.

Four days later, Miller said a painful bruise appeared near a bite on her calf that led her to the hospital.

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“This one kept swelling and swelling, and it was like, you know, a fire stir that’s metal,” Miller said. “It was like shooting down my leg into my foot, and it felt like it was being stabbed.”

Prior to the spider bite, Miller said when she was pregnant with her daughter, she was diagnosed with two blood clotting disorders. Over the years, she developed a compromised liver and allergies to food and medications. With these diagnoses, Miller said the idea of surgery was scary and was not a part of her plan.

“I’m terrified of surgery, that I’m going to go to sleep and not wake up, or that I’m going to bleed out,” Miller said. “They came at 9 o’clock in the morning, and they’re like, we need you to sign this paper. We’re going into surgery.”

During this surgery, Miller said doctors removed almost 300 mL of blood clots and put in a drain to heal the wound. After five days in recovery, Miller said her wound became infected with a staph and gram-negative S-type infection.

While in the hospital, doctors also said they believed she was in end-stage liver failure, with only days to a month left to live.

“They couldn’t keep my levels above even critical,” Miller said. “They gave me three days to up to a month to live, so that was scary. “

Miller said she only remembers glimpses while in the medical and cardio intensive care unit, after denying hospice. After weeks of recovery, on July 11, Miller said she was able to leave the hospital and enroll in at-home care, with only family on her mind.

“I was like, I give up,” Miller said. “I’m done being cut open. I’m done being poked and prodded. I’m done hurting. Then I thought about all of them.”

Miller said she beat the odds, surviving multiple surgeries and infections with a long journey ahead to qualify for a liver transplant.

“The plan is to get a liver transplant once they can get my hemoglobin levels up,” Miller said.

While in the hospital, Miller said there was no definitive way to confirm what spider bit her, but the area on her leg suggests it was a brown recluse spider. Dr. Raymond Cloyd, a horticultural entomologist at Kansas State, said there are numerous types of spiders in Kansas, but the two venomous ones are the black widow and brown recluse spider.

“The two venomous ones that we have in Kansas are the black widow spider, and the more numerous one is the brown recluse spider, which prevails throughout most of the Midwest to mid-central Kansas,” Cloyd said.

Cloyd said the number one exclusion is a good way people can prevent any spiders or spiders’ prey like millipedes, centipedes, sow bugs, or crickets from entering a home by sealing cracks and crevices.

“If you have boxes that have been sitting there cold, you want to wear gloves,” Cloyd said. “Shake shoes or even wash them before you end up wearing them because those are areas where brown recluse and black widow are more likely to reside.”

Since Miller’s hospitalization, she said her husband lost his job due to his inability to work normal hours to take care of her and her children. The Miller family has started a GoFundMe for Miller’s hospital and ongoing medical expenses, home health care, and everyday necessities.