When British chef Matthew Stevens was bitten by a huge spider he photographed it with his camera phone, presuming friends would never believe the story. It was a decision which may have saved his life.

The 23-year-old collapsed soon afterwards and as doctors fought to save him he remembered the picture, which was sent to Bristol Zoo in western England, a report in the Times newspaper said today.

Experts at the zoo recognised the creature as Brazilian Wandering Spider - one of the deadliest spiders in the world - and doctors were able to adapt their treatment suitably.

The ordeal began when Stevens was cleaning a freezer at the pub where he works, the Quantock Gateway in Bridgwater, south-west England and the spider, believed to have stowed away in a bunch of bananas, attacked.

"It was hiding in a cloth and when I squeezed the cloth it bit me. It was about as big as the palm of my hand. I went to try and pick it up and it bit me again. It landed in the freezer, which stunned it," he was quoted as saying.

Assuming the spider was dead, Stevens used his mobile phone camera to take its picture as a souvenir and sought medical treatment.

Despite being dizzy and shaking, staff at a local community hospital told Stevens he should simply go home to rest.

But shortly after returning home, the chef collapsed as the spider's venom worked through his system, and he was rushed to hospital.

"I thought I wasn't going to make it. My chest was so tight I could hardly breathe. My blood pressure was going through the roof and my heart was beating so hard I could feel it hitting my chest," he said.

"The doctors didn't know what type of spider it was, but I'd got a picture of it on my phone and they sent it to Bristol Zoo to identify it."

Doctors were able to treat Stevens by giving him oxygen and increasing the flow of saline into his blood to flush the toxins out of his system, and he was discharged the next day.


http://www.theage.com.au/news/Technology/S...4462097149.html

Once your bitten by a spider.....do you try and pick it up?

That covers 3 different topics

1. don't go near HUGE spiders

2. the NHS really are pants

3. Pubs are dangerous

Hey Mystic Mog... steady on with your theory, I agree on the first 2 but Pubs are good, it is the freezers in the Pub we should avoid.

I didn't think anyone would agree with no.3 either, but I thought it might work on keeping my husband out of our local - for a while at least

If I had been bitten by a spider the size of my palm, I don't think I would have the composure to take a picture of it. I think I would die of fright.

Lucky you dont live in australia then Jennrose...lol

So I've heard. But that doesn't stop me from wanting to visit! I can toughen up.

I just saw this story on the box. Not only is this spider probably the most dangerous in the world but get this.. The hospital that the spider was taken to in a jar then decided to release the spider back outside! Which means that its now on the loose.

You have one spider somewhere...lol

Theres a group of the four types of worlds deadliest spiders.... Australia has 3 of the 4 types here...... You cant live in fear of these things...

Ok... lets think of the logic here. I've been bitten by a spider and it hurts. Do I:

A) Pick it up and let it bite me again.
Squash it with a newspaper.
C) Take pictures so I can show my friends how I died.

Some people just walk around looking for problems. No surprise that he was bitten as many times as he said... he picked the damn spider up...

this is what the spider that bit him looks like. (close up) Would you pick that up????

Wow, I thought I was the only one who takes pictures of spiders.

After getting bitten by a spider you certainly don't try to pick it up. Do you think the guy learned his lesson?!

Okay, that spider just looks scary as H-E-double hockey sticks! It not only looks like a poison spider, it looks like a poison spider witch doctor! (We really need a quaking in fear smiley! )

Know what'd be really evil? If you could make the picture animated (without warning anyone of course) so that when people are sitting there watching the picture download, as it finishes they're treated to the illusion that it's coming out of the monitor to get them.

haha love the last one

He tries to pick up the spider after it bit him.................sigh, well he deserved to be bitten again for that stupid action!

OMG!! Freag that crap!! I wouldn't pick that spider back up. Was he nuts or something?? I would had froze if that happened to me. For I have seen plenty of spiders in Kentucky that big which is my home state, but I never picked them up. That is nuts!! Hey he asked for it!!

Lucky guy having the picture, it could have been a different outcome otherwise.

On the programme I watched yeterday they were interviewing the man and showing a couple of big spiders... There was one they had that Subby told me about the huge ones as big as dinner plates and it was huge and still a baby! Urghhhhh urghhhhhhh! So of course you can guess what I did before I got into bed last night...checked under the duvet and the pillows! LOL!

Anyway this man was lucky because the spider expert said that this type of spider attacks continuously and won't run the other way. Being the reason why it is more deadlier than the black widow, it just comes back for more!

What makes it worse is they still haven't found it although I doubt it would survive out in this climate. Just think though if it got back into the hospital and its a pregnant female.......

Holy crap, if that little guy was a little bit lighter he'd look a lot like the spider that I found sitting in my room one day...Startled me so bad I threw my soup at him!

I would definately not want one that would keep coming after me...I'm okay around spiders as long as I know where there are and they don't come runnig at me...

Anyway, if that describes the same spider in the picture, which describes the same spider that bit the man, then that spider wasn't the one that was in my room. He was about as afraid of me as I was of him. I finally got him chased out the window.

Anyway, this guy is really lucky that he took the picture, but I definately hope he's learned his lesson about picking them up again. Now why would you want to pick him up anyway? I could see if you were brave and it was a pet, but something that just bit you? Something that you know nothing about? Something that could be deadly? Wow...

4. Your mobile phone can save your life.

That's great!
Yeah, that just hit me as funny...

Very interesting, sounds like some dramatic plot twist from a Hollywood movie. Take a look at this guy, camel spider found in Afgan.

Honestly, if not because of his mobile phone he could have died, ain't it?

Yep. That's what you call dumb luck. Dumb for doin' it, but lucky because you did. Or something.

Oh my god is that thing real?

I nearly had a heart attack looking at that and thinking it was a spider, or two joined together by the looks of it, YUCK!!!!!!

OMG thats huge

Anyway that guy is crazy picking it up i would runaway if i saw a spider that big !

KILL IT KILL IT QUICK!!!

Spiders terrify my. I would go to the hospital if the least venomous spider bit me.

lol, Well actually it's two camel spiders, it appears one was attacking the other. Apparently its quite common for them to enter your sleeping bed while you sleep for warmth. Also, they only come out at night and are send to be able to travel up to 25 MPH on the desert surface and lift their front legs as the run and make screaming noises. Its also reported they can jump several feet in the air. Apparently their name derives from the fact that they eat the stomach of camels. Lots of people claim these to be myth, others swear otherwise. I think its pretty cool

Ok, I've done my share of stupid things. I've picked up snakes after they've bitten me. (yeah, I'm from Kentucky too. Some of us ain't right) But never, ever, ever, ever, would I pick up a spider. I'd get real freaked. Then I'd do some screaming, maybe a little passing out. Quite possibly I would pee my pants.

God, spiders? I eat them for breakfast.