A mum believes a spider that crawled out of her shop-bought fruit has left her with a giant gaping wound on her arm that keeps bursting open. Sharon Brown was bitten while making fruit kebabs in her garden in 2016 and says she became unwell within minutes as a small hole appeared on her right hand.
Suspecting she was having an allergic reaction to a potential spider bite, she visited her GP and was prescribed antibiotics, antihistamines and steroids and had the area dressed. The 43-year-old returned to the doctor days later for a check-up to have her dressings changed and was horrified to discover the sore had grown rather than improved.
Over time the 'pinhead'-sized bite grew into a gaping wound that covered Sharon's entire forearm, eating away at her flesh and revealing her deep tissues and tendons. The former garage worker has now been unable to work for the past six years due to the open wound that will not heal or respond to treatment.
Horrifying photos show Sharon's entire arm repeatedly burst open down the middle of her forearm - even with long finger-like growths coming out of the wound. Doctors have been unable to diagnose or effectively treat the condition and she is still battling the mystery condition the critter has left her with six years later.
Sharon said: "I was in the back garden and I felt myself get bitten - I'd been to the supermarket to buy a load of fruit to make fruit kebabs with my boys. I'd bought fruit from different supermarkets so I can't say for certain which punnet it came out of.
"Even doctors think it was something that came out of the fruit packets because of the severity of the reaction and how quick it happened. They think it might have been a spider bite - it could have been an exotic spider because a lot of fruit is shipped in from abroad.
"That's what they're telling me is the most likely cause of what's happened. It just felt like a gnat bite. I didn't really think much of it at first but within five minutes I didn't feel well - I started getting sweaty and having palpitations.
"I rang the doctors and because of my peanut allergy they said 'come down and we'll have a look'. There was just this tiny hole, the size of a drawing pin head. They gave me some strong antibiotics and antihistamines and that seemed to settle it down but when I went back to have the dressings changed a few days later it had got bigger.
"We kept on with the regular dressing changes, antibiotics, steroids and antihistamines and when it didn't heal after six weeks they sent me to hospital with it because it looked really infected. You could just progressively see the hole getting bigger and in time it ate away the whole back of my hand - at the moment it's right up to my elbow.
"I still haven't got a proper diagnosis. It will be six years this July since the insect bite happened. Doctors thought they'd found out what it was a few times but the treatment that would've cleared up that certain condition never cleared me up.
"To this day I'm left with a huge open wound the length of my right [fore]arm that just won't heal."
After six weeks of unsuccessful treatment via her GP, the mum was referred to West Suffolk Hospital where she initially stayed as an in-patient on intravenous antibiotics for a week, in late 2016. Over the next year she was admitted numerous times when the wound flared up and underwent three debridement surgeries, to remove dead and infected tissue, as well as two skin grafts.
When all of these attempts to heal Sharon's arm failed, she was transferred to Ipswich Hospital in early 2017 and underwent further treatment there, which again failed. In 2018 her care was taken over by Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge, where doctors performed another three skin grafts as well as a major ten-hour transplant to close the deep wound with healthy skin from her side.
After those procedures also failed, she was transferred back to Ipswich Hospital in 2019 and has been hospitalised for IV antibiotics and blood transfusions countless times between then and present. Doctors remain at a loss as to what is preventing the wound from healing but some have suggested that it may be caused by the condition pyoderma gangrenosum.
This rare condition causes painful ulcers, spreads quickly and can be triggered by insect bites. Sharon said: "That's how the vicious cycle started - I go into hospital for IV antibiotics and the wound settles down a bit but as soon as I come home and go onto oral antibiotics it flares up again.
"My wound heals to a point and then it breaks down - I almost fully healed in 2017 but then I broke down more and more and more. I had a major transplant in 2018 because by then the whole back of my hand had been lost - there was no skin and you could see my tendons and everything.
"But everything they tried to do just failed. We don't know why it's not healing. The doctors at the hospital said they just don't know what else to do, they're at a loss.
"They think it might be pyoderma gangrenosum because I fit a lot of the criteria of that condition but it doesn't scream that condition. Gangrenosum does get misdiagnosed so many times so it is still possible. They can't rule it out at the minute.
"All this time I've never really been given any definitive answers because no one has seen anything like this before. It's the most frustrating thing to live with. I've been told a few times that I might lose my arm if the infection goes to the bone because it's very hard to come back from that."
The mum frequently suffers serious bleeds and is hospitalised needing blood transfusions due to the exposed tissue on her arm, which has to be bandaged at all times. This combined with the fact that the grisly wound will not heal has meant that Sharon has faced doctors wrongly speculating that she was self-harming and inflicting the injury herself.
She has been questioned by doctors numerous times at the various hospitals she has been treated at over the years and even underwent a psychological evaluation last year. Since that confirmed Sharon was not causing the wound herself, doctors remain at a loss about what condition is behind the ongoing issue.
Sharon said: "It bleeds out a lot and I lose a lot of blood so I have to have frequent blood transfusions. I had a bleed once that reached the ceiling - sometimes if I get a pocket of infection it will find the weakest place and push through.
"I was getting my dressing changed one day and that happened and the blood flew so high it hit the ceiling in my dining room. I collapsed on the floor and my daughter had to call the ambulance and I had to go in for a blood transfusion.
"For a long time I've battled with the hospitals accusing me of self-harming - I've had psych evaluations and they've cleared me so many times and said 'this isn't her picking at it'."
After losing the function in the fingers on her dominant, right hand as a result of the wound and the damage done to her tissues and tendons, Sharon has been left unable to do many everyday tasks. This is exacerbated by the fact that she suffered a stroke in 2019 which, despite physical therapy, has left her other, left arm and hand weak.
Not only is she unable to work or drive but she is forced to have a carer to help her shower. Sharon said: "I'm absolutely sick of being like this, I can't do anything for myself. It affects your mental health hugely."
Sharon currently has a wound vacuum attached to her right arm, with doctors hoping it can suck out the infection and help her to heal. Until her arm heals she is unable to move forward with reconstructive surgery to regain the use of her right hand.
She is now trying to decide whether to return to the care of one of the hospitals that has already attempted to treat her or to try a different hospital further away from home, as doctors remain mystified by her condition. Sharon said: "Now the back of my hand has kind of healed but I need surgery to release my tendons, get my fingers working and hopefully rebuild my hand.
"But I can't have the surgery while I've got an open wound and it's just not healing so I don't know if I'm ever going to get use of my hand back and live a normal life. It's gone on for too long and taken up too much of my life. I can't move forward with anything until this wound heals and it's been six years now.
"All I want is to heal, get better and go back to work but nobody has any answers or knows what to do."
