Woman injects herself with crushed up Black Widow spider to try and get high

A woman who injected herself with a crushed-up Black Widow spider in an attempt to get high had the opposite experience after ending up in hospital.

The incident occurred back in the 1990s and saw the anonymous patient hospitalised in intensive care due to the effects of the dead spider’s venom.

It was recorded in a 1996 edition of the Annals of Emergency Medicine and reported how the 37-year-old injected a mix of crushed-up whole Black Widow spider and 10 millilitres of distilled water into her veins to try and get high.

She told doctors that the intention was to get high. Instead, around an hour later, she ended up in A&E with severe muscle cramps.

The cramping was concentrated in her stomach, thighs and back. Her heart rate and blood pressure were also soaring and she also experienced headaches and anxiety. Morphine was used to treat the woman’s severe pain.

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The patient then began to experience breathing difficulties and was taken to the ICU where she was given treatments to assist her with her breathing for several days.

Doctors believed that the contraction of her smooth bronchial muscles may have been responsible for her breathing difficulties, given the concentration of venom she would have administered into her body via the crushed spider.

When alive, Black Widow spiders only bite when they feel threatened. However, when crushed up and injected the results are dangerous as the spider's venom is 15 times stronger than that of a rattlesnake.

It was also theorised by doctors treating the woman that a protein in the spider’s body may have triggered her body into producing a strong allergic reaction.

Fortunately, the lady fully recovered from her symptoms.

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