Peter Murphy saw a spider in his bed and did not kill it. He carefully picked it up and took it out of the room, in Mansfield, United Kingdom. The next day, his right wrist was swollen and red. Days later, he could no longer speak normally.
What followed was a clinical nightmare: necrotizing fasciitis, an infection that destroys tissue at great speed, as well as severe cellulitis and sepsis. Doctors warned his wife Toni, 62, that they might have to amputate his arm. Before going into surgery, they asked him whether he wanted to be resuscitated if his heart stopped. He said yes.
Peter spent four days in a coma and underwent surgery on four separate occasions. While he was hospitalized, he learned that his sister had been admitted to the floor directly above his, shortly after the death of his brother. He describes the spider that bit him as having a skeletal, almost transparent body, with red eyes. He survived, and used that brush with death to transform his body: he lost nearly 44 kilos.
