A resident of the Ukrainian city of Nikopol, Dnepropetrovsk region, lost both legs after being bitten by a poisonous spider, reports the local edition NikopolNews citing the Nikopol Ferroalloy group in Facebook a>.
54-year-old electrician Stanislav Boyko, a veteran of the border troops and a participant in the hostilities in Afghanistan, was cutting grapes in his country house when a spider attacked him. Because of the bite, the Ukrainian began complications, he was hospitalized and both legs were amputated. From the Nikopol hospital he was transferred to the intensive care unit in the regional center – Dnipro.
Local residents have started collecting money for the Boyko family.
Sergey Torop, a biologist from Nikopol, believes that the Ukrainian could have been bitten by the yellow-muffled spider Cheiracanthium punctorium. These are small – a maximum of one and a half centimeters in length – but very poisonous spiders. According to the scientist, the bite of this arthropod in itself is not deadly, but it can cause an extremely strong allergic reaction. As a rule, the victims have acute burning pain, swelling of the bitten site, vomiting, dizziness, chills, fever and blood pressure. Previously, these spiders were not in Ukraine, however, due to global warming, their habitat has increased.
Previously it was reported that the bite of a venomous brown recluse spider made a giant hole in a woman’s leg. The victim left a huge scar, despite the fact that she was seen by a doctor within 45 minutes after the bite.