Sting of the spider
Avoca man suffers massive reaction to insect sting
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

PHOTO BY ROB PRICE Charles Burlew of Avoca shows the area of his head that was affected by a recent spider sting. Burlew wonders if he was stung by a highly poisonous Recluse spider.

AVOCA - On a Wednesday afternoon three weeks ago, Charlie Burlew was mowing a friend's field across the road from his home on Redman Gully hill. Looking back on the occasion, he believes that's when the spider bit him.

He didn't feel the bite at the time, but three days later he awoke with a searing pain on the back of his head. "It felt like someone just stuck a knife in my head," he says.

His wife of 51 years, Gale Burlew, looked at his scalp and noticed a reddish spot with six pinprick holes in the center. Her husband was in such pain, the couple rushed immediately to the Bath VA, where Burlew was initially diagnosed with a skin infection and given a course of antibiotics. When the medicine didn't work, he and his wife returned to the VA, where a dermatologist determined Burlew was the victim of a spider's venom.

"When I sat down in a chair, he took a look and knew exactly was it was," Burlew said of the physician, Dr. Brenton Olmstead, an Elmirabased dermatologist who visits the Bath VA regularly.

Dr. Olmstead gave Burlew a cortisone-based salve to apply to the affected tissue, which had become necrotic. When Burlew and his wife returned a few days later for a followup exam, the physician observed destruction of the skin tissue had ceased and new skin was growing.

"Now he wants to see me again in four weeks," Burlew said.

Burlew, 71, who used to own a farm in the Hammondsport area, initially wondered if he had been stung by a Recluse spider. The breed is known for the ferocity of its venom. Recluse spiders, however, are not indigenous to the northeast - although individual spiders may enter the region if they're attached to imported goods.

Contacted by The Courier, Dr. Olmstead said he could only ascertain Burlew had been stung by a highly venomous spider. "There are other types of venomous spiders, and he got tangled up with one of them."

"Whatever it was," adds Burlew, "it was a mean spider." Along with his dying skin, he suffered from headaches, nausea and heavy sweating. "Everything was soaking wet," he said.

Dr. Olmstead has some professional advice for people working around spiders: "Just stay away from them, and be on the lookout for them."

"People should be aware these spiders are in the area," adds Burlew. "And this could happen to them."