A TEENAGER died suddenly after saying he was bitten by a spider – just weeks after complaints came in about an infestation in his building.
Harry Bolton, 19, was found dead by his housemates with a gaping wound the size of a £1 coin on his back.
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A few days earlier, the promising second-year university student had told a friend that he felt unwell after being bitten by a spiderand went to A&E.
And weeks earlier others in the University of Hull student housing complex had complained to their landlord about a spider infection.
The inquest heard how Harry’s roommate realized on October 7 last year that he had not responded to a text message.
When he came home from work that evening, he and another housemate knocked on Harry’s door.
The pair got no response so they called the site security and they came down and broke down his door.
The light was on and they found Harry lying on his back on his bed.
His eyes and mouth were open and he felt cold – and they realized his chest wasn’t moving.
The group frantically called emergency services, who rushed to the shared house on Chancellor’s Walk. Hull.
When paramedics arrived, they confirmed that Harry was not breathing, had no pulse and tragically pronounced him dead at the scene.
But while checking on him, they noticed a gaping wound the size of £1 on his back, which appeared to be infected.
The hearing heard how Harry had told a friend just four days earlier that a spider had bitten him on the back and that he was not feeling well.
His friend suggested he go to the emergency room, so he did – and he walked into the Hull Royal Infirmary that evening with a high temperature and a high heart rate.
A blood sample was taken and nothing high risk was detected – although another blood test indicated there was inflammation.
But Ben Rayer, an emergency room consultant at the hospital, said this was not something the labs would flag as an immediate risk.
In the early hours of the next morning, Harry discharged himself and hospital staff said they had no reason to believe the teenager was incapable of doing so.
Several hours later, Harry was last seen by his housemates.
One of them, Kacper-Krysztof Zydron, told the hearing how he had experienced a similar spider bite just two months earlier.
If he hadn’t been bitten by an invertebrate, possibly a spider, he wouldn’t have died at that moment. It’s an incredibly unfortunate case.
Paul Brands
He said the bite, which was on his neck, “hurt a little bit” at first, but after a few days it got so bad that he couldn’t move his neck.
Kacper said he went to the ER and was told to take some acetaminophen, which didn’t work.
He then spoke to his parents and they helped him clear the pus from the infection, before calling his GP and asking for antibiotics to heal the wound and clear the infection.
The roommate then emailed Ashcourt Student Housing about a spider problem and sent a follow-up photo of it.
It turned out to be a common house spider and the inquest heard that an inspection by the maintenance team found no infestation.
A clause in the rental contract also stated that low-threshold pests
burglaries were the responsibility of the tenants.
After Harry’s death, pest control was called in and an investigation was conducted for the peace of mind of the tenants.
Traps were put out. This showed that, given the time of year, there was a normal number of insects in the house.
Coroner Paul Marks determined that Harry’s death was caused by sepsis, due to an acute respiratory infection, resulting from an infected wound on his back.
He said, “If he hadn’t been bitten by an invertebrate, possibly one
spider, he wouldn’t have died at that point. It’s incredible
unfortunate case. He had a promising future ahead of him.”
After his death A just give fundraising site raised over £1,600
in Harry’s memory for Eczema Research.