A mom believes a spider that crawled out of shop-bought fruit is the reason she was left with a giant gaping wound on her arm that keeps “exploding”.
Sharon Brown has lived with a blood-and-gore-ridden arm ever since being bitten while making fruit kebabs in her garden in 2016.
The 43-year-old says she became unwell within minutes as a small hole appeared on her right hand following what felt like a gnat bite.
The former garage worker thought she was having an allergic reaction to a potential spider bite as she became “sweaty and having palpitations” – so visited her GP.
They prescribed antibiotics, antihistamines and steroids and had the area dressed.
But it wasn’t until Sharon, from Stowmarket in Suffolk, had her dressings changed that she realised the sore had grown rather than improved.
Over time, her condition spiralled as the ‘pinhead’-sized bite grew into a gaping wound that covered Sharon’s entire forearm up to her elbow – exposing deep tissue and tendons as it ate away at her.
Six weeks of failed medical help culminated in Sharon spending a week in hospital on an intravenous drip – it would not be the last hospital stay.
Horrifying photos show Sharon’s entire arm repeatedly burst open down the middle of her forearm – exposing horrendous finger-like growths lurching out of the seeping wound.
Doctors have been unable to diagnose or effectively treat the condition and she is still being dragged through her gruesome ordeal six years later.
Sharon said doctors reckon an exotic critter scuttled out of the fruit packet given the severity of the reaction and how quickly it worsened.
The wound has wrecked Sharon’s life for six whole years, leaving her out of work and unable to use her right hand properly because of the tendon damage.
She has also been subjected to endless horror incidents when changing her bandages, including blood spirting out so aggressively it “hits the ceiling”.
Sharon has been in and out of multiple hospitals from 2016 undergoing three debridement surgeries, to remove dead and infected tissue.
Amongst the serious procedures has been a major ten-hour transplant to close the deep wound having lost the “entire of her back hand”.
She’s also had two skin grafts, countless blood transfusions and spent time hooked up to antibiotics.
But everything the doctors have done have “just failed” and they’re at a loss as to why the seeping wound simply isn’t healing.
As a result, the 43-year-old’s arm has been bandaged 24/7 for six years and it has had a devastating consequence on her life.
Not only is she unable to work, drive and do everyday tasks – she is forced to have a carer to help her shower.
This is exacerbated by the fact that she suffered a stroke in 2019 which, despite physical therapy, has left her other, left arm and hand weak.
Sharon lamented: “I’m absolutely sick of being like this, I can’t do anything for myself. It affects your mental health hugely.
“I’ve been told a few times that I might lose my arm if the infection goes to the bone because it’s very hard to come back from that.”
Sharon’s hand is now “kind of healed” but she is unable to get surgery to get use of her fingers back because of the wound that won’t heal.
In a devastating reflection, Sharon said: “I don’t know if I’m ever going to get use of my hand back and live a normal life.”
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