One of the world's deadliest spiders, whose bite nearly killed a British chef this month, was accidentally freed on the hospital grounds after being mistaken for an everyday garden-variety arachnoid.
A spokesperson for the hospital in Somerset, south-west England, said on Friday that the Brazilian Wandering Spider was freed in the hospital garden by a staff member who did not realise he was facing an exotic killer.
The spider, deadlier than a Black Widow and known for its speed and aggression, normally lives in more tropical climes but is thought to have arrived in England in a box of bananas.
The 13cm hairy creature attacked chef Matthew Stevens in his pub kitchen earlier this month in Bridgwater, Somerset, and bit him twice on the hand.
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Stevens, 23, photographed the spider with his mobile phone, thinking it dead after it had fallen in the freezer and been stunned by the cold.
Just to make sure, he then poured boiling water over the stunned spider and placed it in a jar, according to a report in The Times newspaper on Saturday. Later he also cooked the spider in the microwave.
But by the time he was taken to the hospital, dizzy and shaking and with his hand badly swollen, the spider had shaken off the ill treatment and was up and moving again, struggling to get out of the jar.
It was taken with Stevens to the hospital, and then inadvertently released.
The photo Stevens took with his mobile phone was sent to Bristol Zoo in western England, where experts identified the spider while doctors treated the cook with oxygen and a saline drip. He was released a day later.
Officials at the hospital said the Brazilian Wandering Spider was unlikely to pose a risk to public health since it "would have died very soon after being released" because of the cold. - Sapa-AFP
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