David Blancarte had been in a wheelchair for about 20 years after a motorcycle accident in Manteca, California, when a brown recluse spider bit him in 2009.
They took him to the hospital to treat the bite, nothing more. But there, a nurse noticed something no one expected: a spasm in his leg. They performed an electrical stimulation test and confirmed nerve and muscle activity that should not exist in complete paralysis. Five days later, with the help of a walker and physical therapy, Blancarte walked again.
Headlines at the time called it a miracle: the spider that cures paralysis. But no doctor or scientist ever supported that version. Live Science’s analysis points to what really happened: his legs were probably never completely paralyzed and had been recovering quietly. The bite did not cure him; it only made a nurse look where no one had looked before.
