{"id":834715,"date":"2026-07-31T02:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T02:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/834715\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T02:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T02:25:09","slug":"britagne-miller-mum-told-she-has-three-days-to-live-after-being-bitten-multiple-times-by-mystery-spider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/834715\/","title":{"rendered":"Britagne Miller: Mum told she has \u2018three days to live\u2019 after being bitten multiple times by mystery spider"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">An American mother is recovering after multiple spider bites turned into a life-threatening medical emergency that left her fighting for life in hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Britagne Miller was bitten several times by an arachnid on her leg in late May when she was enjoying time with her family by a campfire at Cheney Lake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The mother-of-four, from Kansas, didn\u2019t think much of the bites at first, but within days her condition rapidly deteriorated as swelling and pain developed in her calf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3mk41m-StyledText eze0guv9\">Sign up to The Nightly&#8217;s newsletters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1r9pdr5-StyledSubText eze0guv8\">Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>By continuing you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/thenightly.com.au\/subscription-terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sevenwestmedia.com.au\/privacy-policies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">She was admitted to Wesley Medical Centre in Wichita on June 4, where doctors discovered a large hematoma &#8211; a localised pool of blood clots caused by an injury &#8211; on her leg that required emergency surgery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Her husband, Jake Miller, said the operation was complicated by his wife\u2019s pre-existing end-stage liver disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThis made surgery and routine care far more dangerous \u2014 doctors warned she could bleed out,\u201d he wrote in a <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-britagnes-fight-for-life-and-recovery?attribution_id=sl:7764a3c6-35ce-4370-bce7-c460058447af&amp;lang=en_US&amp;ts=1784075600&amp;utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&amp;utm_content=amp20_t1&amp;utm_medium=customer&amp;utm_source=facebook\">GoFundMe<\/a> statement set up in July.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cMultiple doctors told us she might have only days to a month to live and recommended hospice after just two weeks in the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">During her hospital stay, including 10 days in ICU, Ms Miller underwent surgery to remove the blood clots and developed two bacterial infections, Staphylococcus and gram-negative bacteria, at the site of a drain that was placed in her wound.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The infection became so severe Ms Miller developed sepsis &#8211; a life-threatening response that happens when the body has a harmful reaction to an infection &#8211; and was told by medical staff she had \u201cthree days up to a month to live,\u201d the <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/health\/article-16017085\/spider-bite-kansas-mother-liver-transplant.html\">Daily Mail<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThe infection caused tissue necrosis around her stitches, and doctors had to perform two bedside procedures to remove dead skin and place her on additional antibiotics,\u201d Mr Miller said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cShe refused to give up. She told the doctors she would fight to live as long as she could for her family, and she insisted they do everything possible to save her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">During her gruelling recovery, Ms Miller recalled the pain and terrifying moment she was told she was facing a death sentence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201c\u201cThis one kept swelling and swelling, and it was like a fire stir that\u2019s metal. It was like shooting down my leg into my foot, and it felt like I was being stabbed,\u201d she told <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kake.com\/home\/goddard-mother-says-shes-grateful-to-be-alive-after-spider-bite\/article_5889bc62-b905-4a43-ae2d-06eea4c31b93.html\">KAKE News<\/a>. \u201c<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThey couldn\u2019t keep my levels above even critical. They gave me three days up to a month to live, so that was scary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Although Ms Miller considers herself lucky to be alive, her husband said she is not out of the woods yet and faces an extensive road to recovery at home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cShe\u2019ll need a lot of home health care and weekly visits to specialists as the doctors keep an eye on her liver and blood clotting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cShe\u2019ll also have physical therapy to help her learn to walk again on her right leg and get movement and feeling back in her right hand, plus work on her overall recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">It is not known what species Ms Miller was bitten by, but Dr Raymond Cloyd, a horticultural entomologist at Kansas State University, said the Brown Recluse spider is commonly found in the area near the family\u2019s campsite and has dangerous venom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThe two venomous ones that we have in Kansas are the black widow spider, and the more numerous one is the brown recluse spider, which prevails throughout most of the Midwest to mid-central Kansas,\u201d he told Kake News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Mr Miller thanked every donor for helping to financially support his family during his wife\u2019s long recovery by contributing to the GoFundMe\u2019s $10,000 ($A14,200) goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cFrom the bottom of our hearts, thank you for every prayer, every share, every donation, and every kind word,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cYour kindness has reminded us that even in life\u2019s darkest moments, we are never truly alone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An American mother is recovering after multiple spider bites turned into a life-threatening medical emergency that left her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40,2957,1720],"class_list":["post-834715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-usa","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}