Bitten by a Venomous Spider in the Carmel Forests, Warning: 'It Can Happen to Anyone'

Do you like vacationing in hotels and cabins? You must read about what recently happened to C., a lawyer from Holon who went with her daughter on an annual trip to the Carmel forests, where they stayed together in an inn. 'The evening before the incident, I saw a small brown spider crawling around the room,' she shared in a parents' forum, where she posted a horrifying picture of herself with swollen lips, which we chose to spare you from seeing.

When she looked at the small spider, it didn’t seem threatening to her, but she killed it anyway and went to sleep feeling relaxed.

In the middle of the night, her daughter decided to sleep with her, so C. gave her own pillow and got up to find another pillow in the closet - without suspecting anything. 'There was no sign that anything was wrong,' she shared in a post. Then the trip ended, and a few days later, while she was on a weekend in Eilat, her lip suddenly swelled. 'I thought it was just a small pimple, I didn’t pay it any attention.'

But when her lip continued to swell and caused itching and suffering, she decided to talk to her family doctor via video. The doctor prescribed some ointment treatment, which did not help at all, and C.'s condition worsened, including high fever, vomiting, and general malaise.

At some point, she was taken to Yosftal Hospital, where she received steroid treatment and was released.

On Sunday, as the situation continued to worsen and the infection in her lips had already turned purulent with shocking colors, she went to Wolfson Hospital - where the doctors drained the pus by making a cut in her lip, but that didn’t help the wound heal. Only after another week of suffering, when she went to Ichilov Hospital, the doctors identified it as a bite from a brown recluse spider, a venomous spider that is found in many places in the country. The doctor asked her if she had recently visited the Carmel forests, and only then did she remember the small spider from her daughter's inn.

Now she warns others: 'If you see spiders, even if they are small and not dangerous, be cautious. If there are bite marks or unexplained swelling, don’t ignore it, because it can be dangerous and deadly.'