Spider bite questioned as cause of Aurora electrician's death
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published October 20, 2008 at 3 p.m.
Photo by Chris Schneider © The Rocky
Cindy Herrera holds a photo of her deceased husband, Ernie Herrera, at her home in Aurora.
A picture of Ernie Herrera's infected arm.
Photo by brown-recluse.com
Brown recluse spider
Did Ernest Herrera die of a bite from a brown recluse spider?
His widow thinks so. And the death certificate says "spider bite" was a significant condition contributing to his death.
But a spider expert says it is virtually impossible that Herrera could have died the way he did from the bite of a spider.
The fact that it's an intriguing medical mystery doesn't make the pain any less for Cindy Herrera of Aurora, who says her husband was "my love, my life, my friend." And it doesn't stop her from asking whether misdiagnosis and delays caused her husband to die unnecessarily.
Herrera, an electrician, was moving boxes at a seldom-used Aurora Water Department warehouse on the last day of September when he felt a sharp pain in his forearm.
He thought something must have bitten him, a bug or maybe a spider.
He came home an hour later, showed his wife, Cindy, the mark and said he was in some pain.
She said she told him, "It doesn't look good, Ernie. You'd better keep an eye on that."
He said he'd monitor it.
By the next day, he was in a lot of pain so went with his foreman to a workmen's compensation medical clinic, Cindy said.
Aurora uses two different workmen's compensation clinics, and Herrera chose to go to the one run by Health One, said Jeff Baker, spokesman for the Aurora Water Department.
Cindy said the doctor there gave Ernest some intravenous antibiotics and spent several hours with him.
But when she and Ernest returned to the doctor the next day, when the pain was worse, "He only gave us three minutes of his time," Cindy said.
"And he never took my husband's vitals" even though Ernest said he was in excruciating pain and that it hurt all the way up his upper arm.
When she suggested that Ernest's forearm looked a lot like the images of brown recluse spider bites she found on the Internet, "He laughed at me," she said. "He thought I was a joke."
When she told the doctor that for two days Ernest had been experiencing hallucinations, he told her it was probably just the medication, she said.
On Friday, with Ernest worse, paramedics arrived and took him to the University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora.
His liver, kidneys, lungs and heart failed, and he was pronounced dead on Sunday, October 5.
Leslie Horna, spokeswoman for Health One, the parent company of the clinic that first saw Herrera, said, "We reviewed all the records and we believe we treated him as was appropriate."
At her home last week, Cindy stood in the bedroom, where the IV tubes still were hanging, and where Herrera's books, "Live Longer, Live Better" and "More Ultimate Healing," still rest on the head board.
"He was the most wonderful man you ever met," Cindy said. "He would take a bad day and turn it into something good. He was my salvation."
Paula Cushing, curator of spiders and other invertebrates at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, got a call from one of the Herreras' relatives and later talked to the Rocky Mountain News.
"If I had to put money on it, this didn't have anything to do with spiders," she said.
She has sympathy for the Herreras and doesn't discount that there may have been a misdiagnosis.
But she says that rather than being too reluctant to attribute a lesion to a spider, too many doctors are too eager to pin it on the eight-legged creatures. And when they do, they lose precious time in finding the real reason for the infection.
"The way it was described to me, it sounds like the guy had MRSA," she said.
MRSA, or Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, is an infection that is resistant to most antibiotics.
Seemingly people throughout Colorado, including the Herreras, have stories of friends or relatives bitten by something that seemed like a brown recluse spider.
But Cushing said there are several problems with that theory.
First, brown recluses aren't indigenous to Colorado. Their range is from Nebraska to Indiana in the north and to the Gulf of Mexico in the south.
Second, even if a brown recluse hitched a ride on, say, packaging, and made its way to Colorado, it wouldn't survive the dry, cold air here, she said. And the fact that the warehouse in question hadn't been used for a long time means it's much less likely that any carpetbagging spider would still be alive to bite anyone.
Third, a brown recluse spider would not leave the kind of mark that was described to her, Cushing said.
Most typically, a bite from a brown recluse would produce "absolutely nothing," she said. If it breaks the skin, only in the very rare case would it spread enough to require a skin graft to cover the lesion, she said.
"A death result from the bite of a brown recluse spider is unbelievably rare, if it's ever been recorded at all," Cushing said.
And the only other spider with enough venom to cause serious harm to humans is the black widow, she said. "And that doesn't cause a necrotic lesion like he suffered from," Cushing said. "It affects the nervous system."
Antibiotics are ineffective against brown recluse spiders, she said. Of course, they're also ineffective against resistant bacteria.
"It's much more likely he was poked by a staple in a box or a nail and got an infection," she said.
It could have even been a mosquito bite that was scratched, anything that created a hole in the skin in which bacteria could enter.
"MRSA is incredibly common," she said. "It's becoming an epidemic."
So, Cushing is betting on a bacterial infection not adequately treated that got in the blood stream and grew to sepsis.
"When you diagnose something as a brown recluse bite, especially in an area of the country where they don't live, you're bypassing the correct diagnosis, which could be treatable," Cushing said.
Herrera is unconvinced.
When she looked at pictures of brown recluse bites on the Internet she said she saw "all the signs of what was happening with his arm — redness, a black hole, water pockets all over his arm. It was exactly what my husband was suffering."
She said she wanted to donate her husband's organs after his death, but that doctors told her that except for the eyes, the other organs were too impregnated with poison to be useful to anyone else.
Jacque Montgomery, spokeswoman for the University of Colorado hospital, said that "by the time we got involved in the case, we were treating it as a straight heart attack."
Still, the fact that "spider bite" was listed on the death certificate is intriguing, and so is Herrera's contention that she was told the organs were too poisoned to be used, she acknowledged. An autopsy isn't yet complete. When it is, there may be more answers, she said.
Baker, the Aurora spokesman, said the typical precautions when moving boxes around at the Sand Creek Reuse Facility are to wear gloves and long-sleeve shirts. "We regularly spray those areas," he said.
Baker said Herrera had worked for Aurora for slightly more than six months and was "well-thought of," his co-workers saying "he was a really nice guy."
He said Herrera did report that he thought it was a spider bite, but that no one actually saw a spider.
Cindy says, spider bite or not, it was a big mistake not getting him to the hospital right away. If he'd been there, nurses could have noticed the moment things went very wrong.
As it was, on Friday, she called the paramedics, waited a few minutes for them to arrive, while trying CPR herself. And then more minutes were lost on the drive to the hospital.
"This is just a travesty that my husband had to die," Cindy said.
BROWN RECLUSE SPIDER
*Size: Adults have a leg span about the size of a quarter.
*Coloration: Brown to dull yellow.
*Habitat: Crevices or corners in buildings, under furniture and inside boxes.
*Distribution: Native to the southern Midwest, west into Texas and Oklahoma and south to the Gulf coast. The spider has turned up in other parts of the country, probably inadvertently transported by humans.
*Bite: Brown recluses generally only bite when accidentally pressed against the skin. While the spider can inject a powerful venom, many victims react slightly or not at all. Others report intense pain. In a small percentage of cases, the bite causes a slow-healing, ulcerous wound that causes heavy scarring. In very rare cases death may occur.
*Identification: A number of spiders closely resemble the brown recluse, making positive identification impossible without having the actual spider. Other complications, such as staph infections, can cause the wound ulceration found in some brown recluse bites. There is no antivenin to brown recluse venom.
Source: Ohio State University.
Featured
-
DNC in Denver
Complete coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
-
The Crevasse
A five-part series that examines one tragic day on Mount Rainier.
-
Deadly denial
Sick nuclear workers applied for government compensation but most haven't seen a dime.
-
Final Salute
The Rocky followed Maj. Steve Beck as he took on the most difficult duty of his career.
-
'Colorado's burning'
Coverage of the state's worst wildfires.
-
Columbine shootings
Coverage of the April 20, 1999, shootings at Littleton's Columbine High School.
-
The Crossing
Colorado's deadliest traffic accident killed 20 children on Dec. 14, 1961.
-
Osveli's journey
Osveli Sales left Guatemala for a better life. Two months later, he came home in a box.
-
Wake for an Indian warrior
Oglala Sioux bestow a tribute to the first tribal fatality in Iraq.
October 20, 2008
3:32 p.m.
Suggest removal
davies writes:
Gone forever, just like that, hard to understand. I think they should have waited for the autopsy results before running this story, but my sympathy to Ms. Herrera in any case.
October 20, 2008
3:50 p.m.
Suggest removal
AngelontheSidelines writes:
If you want more MSRA, then keep insisting on antibiotics for your childs cold, and influenza, folks. It does no good and creates antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Once MSRA goes septic, you have a slim chance of survival, so please remember this, but most doctors are beginning to deny antibiotics for virus' for this reason.
If you do suspect an infection, AT ALL see a doctor immediately, DON'T "keep an eye on it" it could kill you.
October 20, 2008
3:56 p.m.
Suggest removal
sszablya writes:
This appears to be identical to the MRSA infection I suffered from early this year. The picture is identical to the wound on my leg that took 3 days of IV antibiotics and an excision to treat. Dangerous stuff, MRSA is. I was told if I had waited one more day to seek treatment, there was a good chance I'd have lost my leg, or worse. My heart goes out to the widow.
October 20, 2008
4:45 p.m.
Suggest removal
Squatch writes:
Funny I have killed several Brown Recluse Spiders in Longmont the last few years so I guess more have hitched a ride than Paula Cushing thinks.
My Sympathies go out to this family.
October 20, 2008
4:52 p.m.
Suggest removal
carlweil writes:
As a wilderness medicine instructor I hear frequently ther are no brown recluses in colorado and kansas yet I have a college who has treated over 200 bites that resemble the photo in Dodge city kns
October 20, 2008
5:18 p.m.
Suggest removal
MTN_Frank writes:
There also are now poisonous Hobo spiders that have made it to CO. My elderly neighbor was bitten by something that caused Brown Recluse type symptoms. She died several months later, not sure if the bite caused that, but the bite never healed and she was in agony the entire time.
http://www.hobospider.org/
October 20, 2008
5:49 p.m.
Suggest removal
EZBakeOven writes:
I would also add if you are bit, immediately wash the wound with some hydrogen peroxide. Two years in a row I had bites that kept getting infected. The nurse told me to do this and I haven't had any infections from bites since then.
October 20, 2008
6:06 p.m.
Suggest removal
V_twinMan writes:
How many years were we told no wolves lived in Colorado before they finally admitted it to be true.
October 20, 2008
6:07 p.m.
Suggest removal
Aurain writes:
I killed a brown recluse saturday under my wood pile and it has been freezing here las week. When I lived in the western slope there were many. and that is even farther from their habitat...
October 20, 2008
6:09 p.m.
Suggest removal
rip84 writes:
Found a brown recluse in our sink the other day.
October 20, 2008
6:36 p.m.
Suggest removal
SallyJitterbug writes:
The MRSA infection is definitely becoming epidemic, yet how often do doctors, hospitals, etc. check patients for it - and when?
Mrs. Herrera, I am so terribly sorry to hear of what you are going through. The unknown is always the hardest because it leaves absolutely nothing to deal with.
October 20, 2008
7:09 p.m.
Suggest removal
Mr_Hyde writes:
"*Identification: A number of spiders closely resemble the brown recluse, making positive identification impossible without having the actual spider."
Huh.....several of you have seen them in Colorado? Interesting....
October 20, 2008
8:07 p.m.
Suggest removal
HollyGoLightly writes:
Its hard to say what it was without an autopsy report. It looks like MRSA (which can travel into your blood stream and kill you quickly) but without testing no one will know.
If you get sick with something like this, you better keep fighting until you get a doctor to pay attention to the symptoms. My sympathies go out to the Herrera family.
October 20, 2008
9:16 p.m.
Suggest removal
Noose_Worthy writes:
Sounds to me like a "bite" and an immune response that could have been complicated with an infection introduced into the wound. I grew up with brown recluse spiders in Missouri, and have seen them here in Colorado, too. I don't buy the habitat issue. However, it could be another arachnoid. I would like to hear from a different expert and from the coroner what really happened. To say that the guy was hit with a nail gun or staple that was complicated by an infection is ludicrous when he thought that he was bitten by something. My sister-in-law was bitten by "something" on her face up in the Estes area during the night. She went to a doctor and was told it was a spider bite and that if she hadn't gone to the doctor when she did, the tissue could have become necrotic and she could have required a skin graft for her face.
October 20, 2008
10:40 p.m.
Suggest removal
localyokal writes:
I have no idea what caused the death of this woman's husband, but her picture is heart breaking. My sympathies to her and the family
October 20, 2008
11:05 p.m.
Suggest removal
Sundog writes:
It sounds like they were brushed off when they returned to the doctor while Mr. H. was in such pain. I think many doctors tend to play down pain as a factor of a patient's status, fearing prescribing pills placed in almost hysterical regard by the DEA. Even though many abuse these pharmaceuticals, terrible pain is a real drag, and should be dealt with promptly as a condition and a symptom. Such treatment could have saved his life.
October 20, 2008
11:35 p.m.
Suggest removal
NeilT writes:
Well said, Sundog!
I was bit by a Brown Recluse last summer. I got it in the stomach while, of all things, moving boxes from my basement in Elizabeth, CO.
It must have been one of those innocent, non-venomous spiders that wreaked havoc on me for several weeks, right Mr. Hyde? I still have the scar from the nasty lesion that little bugger left. I'd be happy to show it to you.
Oh well. According to the expert, there's a huge difference between eastern Colorado and Nebraska. Their climates are so different, nothing can survive the change.
Must have been a staple, after all. A staple that looks more like the picture above than the ones at Office Depot. I must be an idiot to confuse the two.
October 20, 2008
11:57 p.m.
Suggest removal
purplewolf writes:
Back in 1997 I started having a pain in my hip where I had steel pin since the late seventies. I had no medical coverage. I went to University Hospital, they gave me tylenol with codeine sent me home.
Three days later I returned with increasing pain.
They gave me percodans. Sent me home.
This went on for almost a month, I kept going to ER and complaining about pain. Finally my face swelled up, my lip split open and I went there again. Ten days later I woke up with no hip. MRSA, had eaten my hip and part of my pelvic bone away.
I spent close to a year on IV drip underwent several operations,including a hip replacement and am now on SS disability.
Had there been a universal healthcare plan I probably would have been diagnosed early enough to still have my hip and not be on disabilty for life.Not to mention how much it cost UCH to care for me which had to be in excess of a million dollars.
This case sounds similar to mine. By the time I had even considered a lawsuit of some type I was informed by several different attorneys that since UHC receives money for the indigent, you are limited to a certain window of time to bring up a case against them.
October 21, 2008
6:38 a.m.
Suggest removal
gallegoi writes:
What exactly is a curator of spiders??? Did this person actually see the "bite". How can she make any assumptions off just the description? Is she also a climatoligist? or even a doctor? How can she put her money on MRSA? It sounds like she has no clue. Everyone on this post seems to know more about those spiders than her. I think the family should have consulted someone who actually has studied these types of spiders.
October 21, 2008
6:42 a.m.
Suggest removal
bmb527 writes:
For all the "I got bit by a Brown Recluse" folk out there, If you actually think you find a recluse in/ around your workplace or home, catch it and put it in a container, then get it to a place to have it positively identified. If they are spreading here in CO, it needs to be documented. I lived in Louisiana for 3 years, and actually got bitten by a REAL Brown Recluse. I brought the dead spider to the Dr. with me and it was positively identified. There are many spiders that resemble Brown Recluses that are no where near as dangerous. Just remember, every spider on earth IS venomous, EVERY SINGLE ONE!! Most do not have fangs long enough to penetrate our thick human skin.
October 21, 2008
8:09 a.m.
Suggest removal
coloradohunter1 writes:
I grew up in southwest Missouri and know what a brown recluse looks like. I have killed several in my shower near Thornton. My ex-sister-in-law was bitten on the wrist by one in Missouri and had to have skin grafts because of the "necrotising lesions" that this spider expert says aren't caused by brown recluse bites.
October 21, 2008
9:17 a.m.
Suggest removal
NeilT writes:
Reality_Check writes: "If it turns out to be a real one, I'll give you $100. If not, we'll all laugh at you ... again"
How about you give me $100 for each one? I'll give you $200 for each one that I've "falsely" identified. We'll see who's laughing when you pay for my mortgage all next summer.
I'm just a dumb research chemist that hasn't yet realized that we live in a static world. I will review all my texts so I can locate the chapter that explains that nothing migrates or evolves. It must be in there!
I've haven't developed the ability to speak and think in absolutes, either. I suppose we can finally bury the scientific process. We don't need to test any and all process ever again. That's the way they have always been, so that is they way they will always be.
Man, I feel better already.
October 21, 2008
9:36 a.m.
Suggest removal
NeilT writes:
I don't want to turn this into an environmental debate, Reality Check (oh, the irony of your name), but as I just walked by my windows I viewed flowers that are still quite robust. Most everything is on my property. I'm thankful for our extended growing season, for now at least. If it wasn't for the amount of rain we received in August (that was a hot, wet month eh, Reality and Dr. Cush?) we wouldn't have had a hay crop this year.
Increased moisture during our "hot" months and extended growing seasons enable plants that once didn't grow here to thrive. Just ask our resident expert on this subject, Mr. Greenleaf.
We can grow new and different things, but it is absolutely impossible for a spider to live here. Wow!
October 21, 2008
9:44 a.m.
Suggest removal
Squatch writes:
I will defiantly put one in the jar but then I will get the response of he must have caught it in Nebraska then brought it here.
October 21, 2008
9:55 a.m.
Suggest removal
DenGirl writes:
I was thinking staph infection when I read that. Can't they test for that easily? Seems like it would have been easy to run some simple tests to find out what was in his system before he died.
October 21, 2008
10:09 a.m.
Suggest removal
Francesca writes:
We never had fleas nor heartworm appearing on/in dogs either 25+ years ago, but they are both big issues here now now. The rabbits and prairie dogs around here are absolutely covered with them. I have to agree with NeilT's comments. Evolution/migration/adaptation happens.
October 21, 2008
10:51 a.m.
Suggest removal
d3r3ka writes:
Cindy, this story breaks my heart. I am glad they did a story for you no matter if it was a spider bite or not. I am so sorry for your loss that words cannot describe. No matter what caused his death, it was too soon. I love you, and I wish I could have been there. Ernie was a great guy and you are a wonderful lady.
<3 Dereka.
October 21, 2008
11:02 a.m.
Suggest removal
wow writes:
The workman's comp doc mantra..."oh, you're not hurt too bad, take a Tylenol..."
If you're hurt on the job, the last person you want to trust with your well being is the comp doctor.
Get the opinion of a doctor that doesn't have a conflict of interest, even if you have to pay out of pocket.
My heart goes out to the family. Spider bite or not, the condition was misdiagnosed/ignored by the people who could have helped.
BTW, there is a spider that looks exactly like the brown recluse, but is not harmful. It is the funnel web spider, and is pretty common in rural Colorado.The only way to tell the difference is to count the eyes, of all things. Easier said than done. The funnel web has more eyes than the brown recluse, but they are really difficult to count. Best to catch it and take it in for identification.
October 21, 2008
11:20 a.m.
Suggest removal
spencerr writes:
Looks like a staph infection my high school wrestling coach once got. No joking matter. They have been known to kill a fellow.
October 21, 2008
11:44 a.m.
Suggest removal
singularity99 writes:
Amazing how Ms. Cushing feels so free to proffer a medical diagnosis, not being a doctor. In any event, both MRSA and brown recluse skin lesions can be completely cured by applying a product called Tetrasil, available online. This product kills every known bacteria and virus, and with the application of extremely low DC voltage, can actually generate new stem cells for healing purposes. Although the medical establishment is in denial about its effectiveness, there are reams of data to support it, including electron micro-photographs of it rapidly killing bacteria and viruses.
October 21, 2008
12:03 p.m.
Suggest removal
Raemid writes:
A friend of mine went into a coma after her 2nd Brown Recluse spider bite, both bites in Boulder in 1995, several months apart. She moved out of state because her doctors said a 3rd bite would probably kill her.
This "spider expert" seems pretty clueless about Brown Recluse spiders and their habitat in Colorado.
October 21, 2008
12:30 p.m.
Suggest removal
4seeaye writes:
Oh, it made my blood boil reading Paula Cushings ignorent remarks !!
Yes, there ARE brown recluse spiders in CO.!
Even at 9200 feet altitude near Florissant. My perfectly healthy athletic neighbor had just gotten bitten twice this summer, as he was sleeping . Doc's suggested amputation. He is slowly recovering through the help of internet research products.
To the Herrera Family: My heart reaches out to you.
October 21, 2008
4:18 p.m.
Suggest removal
mrdavis38 writes:
I was in the hospital for 10 days with MRSA,
and Mine began exactly how Mr. Herrera's did.
When I started running a fever and my leg swelled 3x its normal size, I went to the ER! Luckily I had a competent Dr.'s who knew what it was. After 3 agonizing surgeries, and so much Vancomyocin, it collapsed the veins in both my arms, I was sent packing, with more drugs and hopes of a speedy recovery. Of course they never told me, until I checked out that I had MRSA, which led to Necritizing Fasciatis, the flesh eating bacteria. They let my family and I believe it was a spider bite, to keep us from panicking!
Now your all wondering how I got my "spider bite?"
From a hot tub, in which i soaked my legs, where I had a mosquito bite!
MRSA is real and serious, and its not just in hospitals anymore.
My condolences to the Herrera family.
October 24, 2008
6:10 a.m.
Suggest removal
katsfriend2 writes:
I was bite by a Brown Recluse 5 years ago and yes it was dignosed by a real doctor! They do exist in Colorado and are a very nasty spider. I was extremly sick for days and did get the bullseye. To say the least I wouldn't doubt he was bite. My heart goes out to his family. Bless all.
October 27, 2008
3:13 p.m.
Suggest removal
b_fly writes:
Ernie Herrera was one of the very few earthly angels I have had the pleasure of knowing. Just being in his presence was to feel safe and loved. He treated my aunt Cindy like a goddess and never denied her anything within his capabilities (It is a good thing that she is so loving and undemanding). They had a relationship the likes of which I have striven for all of my adult life.
The major issue here for me is not particularly what caused this (spider or scratch), but the fact that the "medical professionals" who treated him failed. I believe that if they had been more conscientious in his diagnosis and treatment he would be alive today. I LOVE YOU Uncle Ernie! I LOVE YOU Aunt Cindy!