Woman loses toe to spider bite but gains help from community
»Play Video
GOLDENDALE, Wash. – The community here has rallied to help a woman who lost her toe and nearly her life from a spider bite.
Deborah Heart was picking cherries off her tree on a sunny day in July while wearing Birkenstocks when a spider bite changed her life.
"I felt this intense pain. It was this hot burning sensation, and I knew that something bad had just happened," she said.
Heart had no idea just how serious it was until she went to the doctor the next day and was sent straight to the emergency room for treatment of a poisonous spider bite.
She lost her toe – amputated due to the poison infecting the bone. But she said she could've lost part of her leg or may have died if she waited any longer to see a doctor.
That was the beginning of a scary, and life-threatening battle with the poison from what she believes was either a brown recluse or hobo spider.
The poison spread through her entire body, affected her organs and came close to killing her.
She's now gaining on her health, but the hardest part is accepting help from the community she's been helping as a volunteer for years.
They've raised thousands of dollars to help Heart save her home and pay her medical bills.
"I've had a lot of time to contemplate, 'Why me God? Thanks a lot,'" she said. "It has (tested my faith), but if it wasn't for my faith, my church, my work with the school board, I don't know if I would've survived to this point."
Church members and friends have raised more than $4,000 in just a few days online. Dozens of businesses have also donated thousands of dollars in items to auction off at a fundraiser Friday night.
The brown recluse spider is not native to the Pacific Northwest. In fact, the only brown recluse ever found in the Northwest was in the Yakima Valley town of Prosser in 1978. And that one came from a trailer of household goods brought in from Kansas.
The region does have hobo spiders, however.
We found out about this story through a news tip. If you have a something you want us to look into, send us an email at newstips@katu.com.
Love to hear stories like this about how folks in the community they live in pitch in and take care of their own. Scary story as spider bites can be deadly but so glad to see this women survived!
One more reason you shouldn't ware Birkenstocks
This happened to my Mother about 12+years ago in rural Marion Co, Oregon. She was very ill but caught it in time. She did end up in the hospital on IV antibiotics for about 11 days. She all most died as well, that would have been horrible because our Dad had died 2 months prior to her spider bite.
Come on you guys.....this isn't news!!
...and now anyone entering her home that kills a spider she has to eat her little guest in her web. hahahahaha
My daughter found three in her house just recently. Could it be the time of year
yuck
This comment has been deleted
@Sentry Seriush Be glad it wasn't...
 [IMG]http://i49.tinypic.com/2u94eol.jpg[/IMG]
@str1ngb3nd3r @Sentry Seriush ha ha thats so funny
@str1ngb3nd3r @Sentry Seriush  That's a chipmunk spider. Squirrels don't have the distinctive stripes.
@laref Never heard of those sites...but will check 'em out. Most of these memes are sent to me through e-mail...I just save 'em and post them when the situation calls for it.
[IMG]http://i45.tinypic.com/i1cn5t.jpg[/IMG]
@str1ngb3nd3r @Sentry Seriush AHAHA, best one yet.
@Sentry Seriush Failure.
@Benjamin Schniffle  ..but enough about what your mom and drunken step dad call you...
I'm pretty sure a spider killed me in a former life.Â
@QuandoQuandoQuando Spiderman?
I never thought of that, Josh.
I experienced stinging at the bite mark and it intensified.
Uh, Jody Hirsch, this one if for you!!! You know, with your love of spiders, and all :-)
Wendy wash your clothes.
Wow, that really bites!
holy cripes.
@Tammy Koivisto Its always about "holy" and "god" when you need help, isn't it? us christiums thank the great creator for his blessings he bestoweth on us every day, we just don't beg for mercy while on our death beds! by then its too late and BAM you go straight to hell!~
Wendy, according to the story, she experienced intense burning pain at the time she was bitten
My puppy got bit by a brown recluse. Was horrific! Her skin fell off as well as her ears! But thank God she made it through and lived another 15 years :)
@Kristen Sunderland Was your puppy named lucky?
She said it was painful. Was that right at first? I read with Hobo spiders, it might go unnoticed. What about a black widow?
Got bit by a spider and it turned into mrsa.
@Trisha Robinson MRSA is just like a spider bite and is often mistaken for it. An article I read on MRSA said unless you actually saw the spider, it probably isn't a spider bite.
I was bit by a hobo spider a couple of years ago. It took forever to heal, hurt like hell, and left a scar. We had an issue with them invading our house. Found several in our garage hiding in dirty laundry, one of their favorite places to hide.
@Wendy Gee Magee The Hobo spider now prefers to be called theTransient spider- thank you very much.
I live in Goldendale. From your video, I recognize where that house is right off of Collins. My brother lived on the corner (across from the red building) and was also bitten by a poisonous spider and had to go to the ER. He was put into the hospital, also.
eeek.. i know how that feels i got bite by a spider and had to go and get skin removed from my finger... i still have a narly scar but it hurt like heck.
amazingly generous people. Â
wonder what kind if spider it really wasÂ
@From the OC Probably one that bites. :-P
Yeah, it's great to see how her community rallied around her in her time of need.
@From the OCÂ Hopefully it's now a dead one.
This little piggy went to .........SNAKE !!
@Rob C 503 Well thanks alot for the snake/spider twofer. Could hit my trifecta if somehow a clown got....never mind, too creepy.
Can only count to 19 now
So in one 30-minute stretch I read a story about a poisonous snake bite and now a poisonous spider bite -- my two least favorite things (well, clowns are in there too). Â This is creepy, makes my skin crawl...and like a snake, the only good spider is one that's been flattened by a shoe or a rock or a 2x4 or anything that's handy including my husband's hand.
@Sundowner   @badcatÂ
Yeah. It was probably an Evil Clown Scorpion Snake Spider. Oh, they're the worst!
@Sundowner So I guess you wouldn't be a fan of Steven King's book "It".
I loved it myself. :)
@scoreboard Oh yeah -- that's what I was talking about up there with badcat.  Loved the book, it terrified me and I quit reading his stuff after that.  Interesting to me that I feel much more emotion, especially scary stuff, reading a book than I ever do seeing the same movie.  Maybe there's more concentration when it's not being shown to me?  That must be my little revelation of the night! Â
@Sundowner As Jim Stafford said "I don't like spiders or snakes" Now the song is in your head -ha haa haaa
@tally  You're a big meanie -- now that stupid song is in my head like a continuous-loop tape.  You're grounded.
@Sundowner @tally Post traumatic 8 track syndrome
@Sundowner I'll take the spider over the evil clowns any day. Â
Insects and wildlife are one thing, painted deranged humans are more dangerous.
They sell ammo for the great "zombie" attack, how about selling a few boxes of Clown Ammo?
"Hornady; Clown Ammo-when opportunity strikes".
@Quaoptician @Sundowner Clown ammo? It's called Silly String.
@Sundowner All we're missing is a scorpion horror story. But an evil clown trumps all... "They all float down here!!"
@badcat OK, I purposely hadn't thought of that book since about a month after I read it.  Blechhh.  I'm not as freaky about scorpions because I see them all the time (desert), but having lived in Arizona I never put shoes, slippers or gloves on without checking first.  Oh, crap -- I'm gonna be checking everything the rest of the night.  YOU RUINED MY BUZZ!!  =)
@badcat Never saw the movie and now I won't have to!  I stopped reading his books because they were so well-written I felt like I was right there...'Pet Semetary' was probably the worst for me.  So now that I'm all freaked out, I'll have to poke around and see what I can find to take my mind to another place.  Kinda like lee does but minus the RedBull and Albuterol.
@Sundowner Tim Curry did a good job creating a visual for me. Of course the rest of that movie sucked ... even though you don't often get the stars of Night Court, Three's Company, and the Waltons in the same line up.Â