Advertisement

Student died after being bitten by spider

Harry Bolton
Harry Bolton

A teenage student died after being bitten by a spider at his university digs, just months after his housemate complained about a similar incident.

In what is believed to be one of the UK’s first spider-related deaths, Harry Bolton, 19 contracted fatal sepsis within days of being bitten on the back in October last year.

The household had previously notified their landlord about a possible spider invasion when another housemate suffered a bad reaction from a bite, Hull Coroner’s Court heard.

An inspection of the house on Chancellor’s Walk was carried out following the complaint in August, but it found no sign of an infestation.

Less than two months later, on October 3, Mr Bolton told friends a spider had bitten him on the back and he was not feeling well. They advised him to go to hospital as a precaution.

He went to Hull Royal Infirmary that night with a high temperature and high heart rate, but a blood test detected nothing of high risk beyond inflammation, the court was told.

Shortly after midnight, Mr Bolton discharged himself and told staff he would go home and return for a check-up the next day. The following morning was the last time he was seen alive by his housemates.

Harry Bolton
Harry Bolton

On the evening of October 7, one of Mr Bolton’s housemates realised he had not received a response to a text he had sent him.

After returning home from work, he and another housemate decided to knock on his door. There was no answer and they decided to call site security to break the door down.

Mr Bolton was found dead inside. Further examinations revealed he had a large infected wound on his back.

Giving evidence at the inquest into the teenager’s death, one of his housemates, Kacper-Krzysztof Zydron, described a similar bite he had suffered to his neck in August last year.

He said the bite initially started off “hurting a bit”, but within days it was so bad he could not move his neck.

The student went to A&E and was told to take some paracetamol. It did not work and he told his parents about it.

His parents helped him remove pus from the infection and Mr Zydron said that helped relieve the pain. He called his GP and asked for antibiotics to heal the wound which cleared his infection.

He then sent an email to Ashcourt Student Housing about a problem with spiders. Attached to the email was an image of a spider Mr Zydron had taken the following day, showing a common house spider.

A common house spider similar to the one that bit Mr Bolton
A common house spider similar to the one that bit Mr Bolton

But an inspection by the maintenance team found no infestation on the premises and the tenancy agreement stated that low-level pest intrusions were the responsibility of tenants.

After Mr Bolton's death, pest control was called for the peace of mind of the tenants and a survey was carried out, the court heard.

Sticky traps were laid out. It revealed that there was a normal number of insects in the house given the time of the year.

Coroner Paul Marks determined that Mr Bolton's death was caused by sepsis, due to an acute chest infection, due to an infected wound on his back.

He said: "Had he not been bitten by an invertebrate, possibly a spider, he would not have died at that time. It is an incredibly unfortunate case. He had a promising future ahead of him."

Deaths related to spider bites are virtually unprecedented in the UK.

In 2014, Pat Gough-Irwin, 60, died after being bitten by a false widow spider at her Hampshire home.

It is the only known death suspected to have been linked to a spider bite in the UK for at least the last 30 years.