A promising student, 19, was tragically found dead in a shared house with a wound the size of a £1 coin after complaining of being bitten by a spider, an inquest heard.
Harry Bolton, 19, in his second year at the University of Hull, had died at his home in Chancellor's Walk having started to feel unwell four days earlier following a suspected spider bite.
A housemate became concerned after not receiving a response to a text message and when there was no reply to a knock on his door, on October 7, last year, site security was called and the door was broken down.
The light was turned on in the room and they found Harry lying on his back in his bed with his eyes and mouth open. He was cold to the touch and his housemates and the security team member noticed his chest was not moving, the inquest heard.
Emergency services were called and while checking on him, paramedics noticed a £1 large gaping wound on Harry's back that appeared to be infected. They confirmed he was not breathing and there was no heartbeat and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Four days earlier, Harry had told a friend a spider had bitten him on his back and he was not feeling well, and he advised him to go to the A&E to get it checked out.
Harry went to Hull Royal Infirmary at 9.40pm that night with a high temperature and a high heart rate. A blood sample was taken but nothing of high risk was detected - a CRP Blood test revealed a level of 54, which indicated there was inflammation.
Ben Rayer, an A&E consultant at Hull Royal Infirmary, told the court this was not something that would be flagged up by the labs as a matter of immediate risk and at 1.01am, on October 4, Harry decided to self-discharge.
He told a hospital staff member that he would be returning home to bed and would take himself to a walk-in centre the next day. Hospital staff had no reason to believe Harry did not have the capacity to discharge himself and he went back to his student house.
The following morning was the last time Harry was seen by his housemates.
Others in the student accommodation complex on Cottingham Road had previously reported a spider infestation, the inquest heard.
Another housemate, Kacper-Krysztof Zydron, gave evidence in court about a similar bite he had received on his neck in August, 2021.
He said it initially started off "hurting a bit", but over a few days it was so bad that he could not move his neck and he went to A&E were he was told to take some paracetamol.
It allegedly did not work and having told his parents about it, they helped him remove pus from the infection. Kacper said that helped relieve the pain and he then called his GP who gave him antibiotics which cleared the infection.
He sent an email to Ashcourt Student Housing about a problem with spiders attaching an image of a spider he had seen which appeared to be a common house spider.
The inquest heard an inspection was carried out by the maintenance team who found no infestation. A clause in the tenancy agreement also stated that low-level pest intrusions were the responsibility of tenants.
After Harry's death, pest control was called for the peace of mind of the tenants and a survey was carried out. Sticky traps were laid out and it was found that there was a normal number of insects in the house given the time of the year.
Coroner Paul Marks determined that Mr Bolton's death was caused by sepsis, due to an acute chest infection caused by an infected wound on his back.
He said: "Had he not been bitten by an invertebrate, possibly a spider, he would not have died at that time. It is an incredibly unfortunate case. He had a promising future ahead of him."
After his death, a JustGiving fundraising site raised more than £1,600 in Harry's memory for Eczema Research.
