A mother of four is clinging to life in the hospital after being bitten by an unknown number of spiders while visiting Cheney Reservoir about 35 miles west of Wichita.
Britagne Miller, who has a history of blood-clotting disorders, was sitting by a campfire with her family on May 28 when the arachnids crawled all over her, leaving her with several bites on her body.
Kansas mother Britagne Miller suffered near-fatal spider bites while enjoying the great outdoors with her husband and four children. GoFundMe
Although she seemed fine at first, four days later a painful bruise developed near one of the bites on her calf, which prompted her to go to the hospital.
“This one kept swelling and swelling, and it was like, you know, a fire stir that’s metal,” Miller said. “It was like shooting down my leg into my foot, and it felt like it was being stabbed.”
Miller said she had been diagnosed with two blood-clotting disorders while pregnant with her daughter, and had developed food and medication allergies in addition to a compromised liver.
“I’m terrified of surgery, that I’m going to go to sleep and not wake up, or that I’m going to bleed out,” Miller told KCRA. “They came at 9 o’clock in the morning, and they’re like, we need you to sign this paper. We’re going into surgery.”
Doctors removed approximately 2 oz of blood clots and installed a drain to help the wound heal — but five days later Miller’s wound became infected with a serious staph infection and a gram-negative S-type infection.
Her physicians also said they believed she was in end-stage liver failure and had only a few days to a month left to live.
She was hospitalized for more than a month, enduring multiple surgeries and surviving several nasty infections before she was discharged July 11. She’s now on the waiting list for a liver transplant. GoFundMe
She declined hospice care and stayed in the intensive care for more than a month, finally leaving the hospital July 11 after multiple surgeries and infections.
The ordeal had her at the end of her rope, and only the thought of her family kept her going.
“I was like, I give up,” Miller said. “I’m done being cut open. I’m done being poked and prodded. I’m done hurting. Then I thought about all of them.”
She’s now on the waiting list for a liver transplant.
Although she didn’t know what kind of spider bit her, Kansas State University horticultural entomologist Dr. Raymond Cloyd said the only two venomous spiders in the state are the black widow and the brown recluse, which are commonplace throughout the Midwest.
Miller’s husband lost his job because he couldn’t work normal hours while caring for her and their children, and the family has set up a GoFundMe account for her hospital expenses and their day-to-day expenses.
