A 10-year-old Australian boy has survived being bitten by one of the world's most venomous spiders after being treated with 12 vials of anti-venom, reports say.
A deadly funnel-web spider is milked for its venom at the Australian Reptile Park in Sydney. Photo: AFP
It is thought to be one of the largest doses of anti-venom ever administered in Australia.
Matthew Mitchell, of Berkeley Vale, New South Wales, was bitten on his finger by a funnel-web spider while helping his father clear out a shed.
He suffered multiple seizures, dilated eyes and began frothing at the mouth.
"It sort of clawed onto me and all the legs and everything crawled around my finger and I couldn't get it off," he told the Australian Daily Telegraph.
Matthew's family used his shirt as a tourniquet to curtail the spread of the venom as he was rushed to hospital.
The dose of anti-venom was believed to be three times more than that used on an adult survivor of the same type of spider bite in February 2015, the Telegraph said.
The spider was captured and taken to the Australian Reptile Park near Sydney, where it would be used in a venom-milking programme.
The park's general manager Tim Faulkner said Matthew was "as lucky as they get".
February and March were the peak breeding season for many funnel-web species.
Australia's deadly funnel-web spiders
Sources: Australian Museum, US National Library of Medicine
- BBC
