3 brothers get black widow spider to bite them hoping it would turn them into Spider-Man, end up in hospital
Three brothers in Bolivia had to be hospitalized after getting a black widow spider to bite all three of them hoping they would magically gain superpowers like Spider-Man. The youngsters, aged 8, 10 and 12, found the deadly spider while herding goats in Chayanta Province in central Bolivia and poked it with a stick until the arthropod bit each of them.
According to Spanish news network Telemundo, their mother grew concerned when she found them crying and rushed them to a local medical center. The story broke after it was first revealed by Virgilio Pietro, the epidemiology chief from the Bolivian Ministry of Health, during their daily coronavirus press briefing. The brothers' symptoms did not improve at the local health center, prompting caretakers to transfer them to a hospital in the small town of Llallagua, where doctors said their condition was too complicated for treatment at the facility.
The trio was subsequently transferred to the Children's Hospital in La Paz the following day. By the time they arrived at the hospital, the brothers were already suffering from muscular pain, sweating, fever and general tremors. Fortunately, their condition improved after being treated with antivenom over the course of a week. They were all finally discharged on May 20.
Pietro warned families with children to "be careful". He noted, "For children, everything is real, movies are real, dreams can be real, and they are the illusions of our lifetime." The brothers' fantasy stemmed from the 2002 blockbuster 'Spider-Man' which saw the character Peter Parker, played by Tobey Maguire, bitten by a genetically modified "super-spider".
The double puncture wound eventually swells up and Parker is seen to experience high fever and blurry vision before passing out on his bedroom floor. Upon waking up the next morning, he realizes he no longer needs glasses, that his body had become far more muscular, he could sprint faster than anyone else, his reflexes and agility improved, he could climb up flat surfaces with ease and even shoot long spiderwebs out of his wrists.
Black widow bites are mostly rare because the spider is usually non-aggressive and doesn't bite unless threatened. According to National Geographic, however, it's venom is 15 times stronger than that of a rattlesnake. Its bites are known to cause muscle aches, nausea and paralysis of the diaphragm resulting in breathing difficulties. However, most people who are bitten suffer almost no serious long term injuries and fatalities are a rare phenomenon. However, the ones most at risk are small children, the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.
"Although these bites are generally not life-threatening for healthy adults, medical attention should always be sought following a black widow bite — particularly for children and the elderly," the NCC recommends. The black widow gained its macabre name after the larger female arthropod has been known to eat smaller males after mating with them. On an added note, there are no recorded cases of a spider passing on its proportional strength or agility to a human being outside the Marvel universe.