What began with Peter Murphy, a health and safety manager from Mansfield, moving a spider out of his bedroom escalated into a health crisis that nearly killed him and almost cost him his arm.
The bite was followed by a four-day coma, multiple surgeries, and a lengthy recovery — an experience that led him and his wife to rethink their health entirely, the Mirror reported.
Here's what to know
In October 2022, Murphy — a health and safety manager from Mansfield — noticed what he described as a "strange" spider on his bed and carried it outside.
After that, his right wrist became red and swollen. Subsequently, his condition worsened so severely that he had difficulty speaking and was taken to the hospital.
Doctors told Murphy's wife, Toni, that they might need to amputate his arm if the infection kept spreading upward.
"At this point, my life was flashing before my eyes," Murphy recalled, per the Mirror. "I turned to Toni, managed a smile, and said, 'I don't think I'm going to make it through this. This could be goodbye.'"
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After four operations and a four-day coma, Murphy was told he had necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating infection. He also developed severe cellulitis and sepsis.
More background
Rather than harm the spider, Murphy only picked it up and put it outside.
The ordeal also happened during a devastating period for his family. While Murphy was in the hospital, he learned that his sister had been admitted to a ward above him after his brother died.
"Maybe it was fate that this weird-looking spider was sent to me and made me so poorly," he reflected. "It brought me and my sister together for the final time."
Murphy required skin grafting and physiotherapy to restore movement in his hand and fingers.
What can be done?
After the incident, Murphy viewed his health in a new light.
The couple decided to overhaul long-standing eating habits that had included fried breakfasts, kebabs, cakes, and other calorie-dense foods.
According to the Mirror, after they joined Slimming World at the start of 2025, the couple dropped a combined 142 pounds, with Murphy losing 93 pounds and Toni losing 49 pounds.
They also started playing badminton three times a week, and found that the changes helped relieve problems including breathlessness, snoring, and chest pain.
For Murphy, the emotional shift mattered just as much as the physical one.
"We only gave up one thing — and that was the weight we were carrying. We said goodbye to our worries about dying and said hello to living," he told the Mirror.
Where can I learn more?
Murphy's ordeal is one of several spider stories involving unfamiliar species. These stories look at a giant spider at a Gran Canaria doorstep, the spread of Joro spiders, and unusual silk-wrapping behavior.
• In Gran Canaria, a woman found a spider at her front door and feared it was dangerous.
• In South Carolina, residents faced an unusually resilient and possessive wave of Joro spiders and wanted them gone.
• A spider spinning a web around its own body sparked debate over what it was doing.
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