Spider Bite Allows Man To Walk Again

Manastorm writes "A man who was wheelchair bound due to a motorcycle accident twenty years ago gained the ability to walk again after being bitten by a recluse spider. 'I can't wait to start dancing,' he said as he looks forward to a full recovery after experiencing what some call a 'true miracle.'" I think we all know how this story is going to end. I hope The Sinister Six have been practicing.

Comments

What a misleading headline

[jandrese]

For those of you who are thinking that deadly spider poison is some sort of elixir of mobility I have some bad news. Basically what happened is that he got sent to the hospital and the doctors noticed that his legs were in better shape than he thought, and with some physical therapy he was able to get them working again.

Re:What a misleading headline

[sjames]

Actually, recluse venom is cytotoxic rather than neurotoxic. In the majority of cases, it causes nothing more than aches and a bit of feaver. In the minority of cases, it will cause a nasty necrotic ulcer local to the bite. Even rarer, the effects are diffuse and systemic causing various organ damage.

It's hard to see where the bite would help, but if it did (that is, not a coincidence), I'd have to guess (and it's a wild guess) that it broke up scar tissue that was blocking healing in the nerves.

Re:What a misleading headline

[SerpentMage]

I am going to disagree with you.

If you look at the effects of venom it is actually quite amazing.

Bee Venom: Used for many joint, and allergies.
Snake Venom: Cancer

Venom has very interesting side effects, but the devil is in the details and the dosage. Too much and you die, but just enough and your body has a reaction.

It is an extremely fine line. In the case of this guy who could walk again it would not surprise me that the venom kicked off a reaction that caused the nerves to regenerate.

The human body is an amazing creation since it has the ability to regenerate itself. The reason we age is because our body tells us to stop regenerating. For example look at amphibians, they just keep growing, growing, and growing...

A different sort of miracle.

[Guppy]

The article is mis-leading, it sounds as if some biochemical trick of the spider venom mysteriously un-paralyzed him. The actual situation sounds rather more ordinary.

From what I can tell, the spider bite just got him into the hospital, and in contact with the right kind of doctor and rehab that got him walking again. That's a little miracle in itself there, but it's the kind of miracle of circumstance and determination -- not the sort that goes into the science section.

And it did not take him long to get arrested eithe

[arkham6]

http://cbs13.com/watercooler/Paraplegic.Man.Suffers.2.960606.html

Nice.

Re:And it did not take him long to get arrested ei

[Anonymous Coward]

Hyperlinked for the lazy like me: Man Who Walked Following Spider Bite Arrested

Slashdot Killer: +100, Informative

[Anonymous Coward]

I've developed a news engine that is guaranteed to put Slashdot out of business:

It's called Google News Search.

Yours In Communism,
Kilgore Trout

Reporting Fail

[bsander]

The story with a little less bullshit is here: http://www.theskepticsguide.org/sgublog/?p=519

Re:And it did not take him long to get arrested ei

[Anonymous Coward]

...on Friday, Manteca Police arrested Blancarte on charges of contempt of court charge stemming from a domestic violence case, CBS News reported.

8 months of rehab is the real reason

[bmfs]

From: http://www.theskepticsguide.org/sgublog/?p=519 by Steven Novella

Here is the real story, as best as I can infer from the information I am given, but I have a high degree of confidence in my interpretation. First, it is not plausible that the spider bite itself did anything to regenerate nerves or muscles or improve David Blancarte's neurological function. So what did happen. The story reports:

Ever since, David's been relying on his wheelchair to get around. Then the spider bite. A Brown Recluse sent him to the hospital, then to rehab for eight months.

It is always important to seperate out variables when considering cause and effect. There are at least three variables we are being presented - Blancarte was biten by a brown recluse (which is poisonous), then he was treated for his bite in the hospital, and then he spent eight months in rehab. Of those three variables, which one is most likely to have resulted in his ability to walk? My bet is on the eight months of rehab.

To understand this we must further separate out variables. Motor ability (like walking) results from two general categories of factors - neurological and functional. Neurological factors include things like how intact the spinal cord and nerves are, and is there any damage to specific parts of the brain. Functional factors include conditioning, training, and motivation. So the question we must always ask when someone makes an improvement in motor ability is: was their improvement neurological, functional, or both.

Re:Missing the point

[weber]

What's wrong with Santa? We know St. Nick was real (so we know there are charitable people) and we know wormholes are real (so we know how to travel around the globe in an evening).

Actually I have my own theory concerning Santa: he can manipulate Planck's constant. Consequently he can place himself in a quantum state where he's in every good kids home at once. This allows him to deliver presents to all the good children simultaneously - as long as he's not observed. If someone does spot Santa, his quantum state collapses to the eigenstate that is him in that particular kid's home. Thus, he must be very careful not to be spotted, otherwise it would take a long time to deliver all the presents.

I realize that this theory still have some rough edges, but I'm confident it can be refined and verified before Christmas.