‘A lot of pain’: Georgian survives bites from brown recluse spider
WATKINSVILLE, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - An Oconee County mother is recovering after being bit by a venomous spider.
Jessica Rogue, 44, said she encountered several brown recluse spiders.
Rogue said it happened while she was cleaning out a shed outside her Bogart home.
“I was just in there sweeping, I immediately felt something on my face next to my eye. I felt I got bit,” she said.
Rogue said the spiders bit her in multiple places, including her face.
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“There were spiders on me, where I was it was a really messy web, and I was trying to clean that up,” she said.
Rogue said it happened on July 1. She explained less than 24 hours later, she had to be rushed to the hospital.
Her face, arms and throat were completely swollen.
“This is escalating, this is getting worse. I really didn’t know for sure. I’ve been bitten by spiders so many times. I had no idea what it was, there’s no way it could have done that to me,” she said. “Yeah, a brown recluse can do these things to do.”
The brown recluse spider is one of three venomous spiders in the U.S. The spiders can be identified by the dark brown, violin-shaped marking on their back.
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A bite from a brown recluse spider can be deadly.
Symptoms include:
- The bite area may become red and swollen, and a blister may form.
- A burning sensation may develop around the bite within an hour.
- A skin rash may appear all over the body, with many small, flat, purple, and red spots.
Rogue said the visible swelling on her upper lip is a non-cancerous lymphoma/tumor from a car accident years ago, unrelated to the bite.
She said the scars, rashes, and patch on her eye are a result of the venomous bites
“My eye is what I’m really worried about. My eye is... I’m having a lot of pain. I just don’t know what’s going to happen with my eye,” she said.
The mother of three said she’s counting her blessings.
“Some people don’t end up being as lucky as I am,” Rogue said.
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