Three young Bolivian siblings went out to tend to some goats when they wound up in the hospital instead. The three brothers ages 8, 10, and 12 were out grazing goats when they stumbled upon a black spider. The spider reminded them of their favorite comic book heroSpider-Man, and so the three kids decided to try an “experiment” with the spider. Each child took turns poking the spider with a stick until it bit each of them. The unfortunate part is that it was a black widow spider.
Theblack widowspider forced the three young kids to be hospitalized. The boys were found by their mother scared and crying and showing symptoms within minutes of the bite. They were admitted to a local hospital in Chayanta, a small town in the Andean region of Potosi. The boys were treated with medicine but showed little to no results after the first day.
RELATED:Florida Man Arrested While Trying to Quarantine on a Disney’s Discovery Island
On the second dayin the hospital, they had come down with severe fevers, tremors, and muscle pain. After their symptoms worsened, they were transferred to another hospital in Llallagua where an Epidemiologist recognized the bites and treated them immediately. Luckily, the children started to improve from then on but weren’t released from the hospital until a week after they were admitted.
Withvenom nearly fifteen times strongerthan that of a rattlesnake, black widow spiders are some of the most poisonous in North America. They aren’t usually deadly but they do pose particular threat to both young children and the elderly. Typically black widow spiders are not aggressive creatures unless they are provoked, a rough realization for the comic-loving kids.
Epidemiology Chief of the BolivianMinistry of Health, Virgilio Pietro, was the one to diagnose the children and had words of caution for parents everywhere.
Be careful, for children everything is real. Movies are real, dreams can be real, and they are the illusion of our lifetime.
Pietro was only able to update the press about the kids' condition a week after events had transpired. Pietro was giving an update on thecurrent COVID-19 progressionwhen he tagged on the update of the children.
It is Pietro’s hope that parents will help children understand the difference between lovable web-slinging fictional characters and reality. As of now, the kids are doing much better, and their mother is beyond grateful. Hopefully, the kids will stick toplayingSpider-Manon PlayStation in the future.
MORE:Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Director Explains Why Dr. Octopus Is A Woman
