Spider bites can be unpleasant, sometimes causing minor symptoms such as a bit of redness or itching. One woman had a much more horrifying experience, as detailed in a recent report from People. A few days after a spider bit her, the woman developed some alarming symptoms. A rash started to spread across her body, leaving her skin hot to the touch and covered in pustules. The pain got so bad that she couldn’t even sit or lie down. In a way, she found it even more horrifying when staff in the emergency room told her the symptoms probably weren’t caused by a spider.
She documented the progression on social media.
In a series of videos shared via TikTok, Sarah Neal showed her followers how the rash worsened over time. Thousands of people were horrified on her behalf. In one video, she explained that a spider had bitten her not long before the rash started to develop. When it showed no signs of improving, she went to the ER, but medical staff told her the pustules on her face did not appear to be caused by a spider bite. Instead, they suggested that it might’ve been a reaction to a skin care product.
But because Sarah had not tried any new products in years, she “genuinely (had) no clue” what caused it. Without the spider to blame, she couldn’t think of any other possible explanation, other than the body sunscreen she had applied to her face a few days prior.
People urged her to get a second opinion.
@sarahtneal doctors nurses please give thoughts
♬ original sound – Sarah Neal
In spite of what she was told at the hospital, the rash didn’t seem right to Sarah, her TikTok followers, or her mom. She told People that her mom pushed her to see a specialist because of how “concerning” her skin looked. She was also in a lot of pain.
“The pain was so bad, I couldn’t sit, and even laying in bed hurt,” she told the magazine. Somehow, Sarah was able to find a dermatologist who could see her that day.
The dermatologist diagnosed her with an AGEP rash.
@sarahtneal craziness!!!! glad at least I’ve been on antibiotics this week!
♬ original sound – Sarah Neal
AGEP, or acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis, is a rare but serious skin reaction that’s often caused by certain medications. Sarah’s dermatologist mentioned another possible cause, though: a brown recluse spider bite.
A second dermatologist later confirmed that the alarming skin reaction was caused by a brown recluse bite. And it turned out to be even scarier than she had thought as “the tissue around the bite was necrotic, basically dying,” she told People.
She also shared the news on TikTok after seeing the second dermatologist. Her followers noticed how calm she seemed in spite of the major health scare that left her in significant pain for two weeks.
“Hi can I borrow some of your chill pls,” one person commented on her video. A second person agreed, writing, “You are the level of unbothered I dream of being.”
Though people can have the reaction Sarah had to a brown recluse spider bite, it’s pretty rare. So rare, in fact, that her doctors made her feel like “a medical mystery.”
“One of them literally left the room to go look in his medical textbooks,” she told People. “He came back and said there were a few cases just like mine, linked to brown recluse bites.”
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