A 16-year-old boy from Iowa, who was active in sports and weightlifting, has been left unable to speak and bedridden after being bitten by a spider. Noah Johnson was working at an outdoor summer job in Slater, Iowa, in June when he felt something crawl on him. The next day, the bite became painful and quickly grew in size, leading to a severe infection.
His mother, Brandy Johnson, took him to the emergency room after he developed a high fever. Doctors prescribed antibiotics, but three days later, Noah could not walk and was rushed into emergency surgery to remove infected tissue. The following morning, he went into kidney failure and was transferred to Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, where he spent two weeks in intensive care on dialysis, losing 35 lbs.
At times, Noah was unable to speak. He told his mother he was very scared and thought he was dying. After his kidneys began to function again, he was moved out of the ICU in mid-July and is now recovering at home. A fundraising page set up by friends’ mothers has exceeded its $15,000 goal to support the family.
Brandy Johnson said the ordeal has changed her perspective, noting that everything changes when a child suddenly becomes gravely ill. Venomous spiders such as black widows and brown recluses can pose a threat to outdoor workers, but deaths from bites are extremely rare, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
