A teenager died days after telling friends he had been bitten by a spider. Harry Bolton went to A&E after starting to feel unwell after being bitten in October last year.
His temperature and heart rate were both high and a blood test was taken. This revealed nothing of risk, but a CRP Blood test showed a level of 54, which indicated there was an inflammation.
The 19-year-old discharged himself from hospital telling a hospital staff member that he would go back home to bed then return to a walk-in centre the next day. Tragically, days later, the teenager was found dead, an inquest was told.
Hull Live reported how others in the Cottinham Road student complex had previously reported a spider infestation in their accommodation. Another housemate had also been bitten and needed medical treatment to clear the infection.
The inquest was told how Harry told friends he had been bitten on his back on October 3 last year. He went to Hull Royal Infirmary at 9.40pm that night where he was checked out and tests showed the inflammation.
Ben Rayer, an A&E consultant at Hull Royal Infirmary, told the hearing this was not something that would be flagged up by the labs as a matter of immediate risk. At 1.01am, on October 4, Harry decided to self-discharge.
The following morning was the last time Harry was seen by his housemates. Then on October 7 one of his housemates realised he had not replied to a text. They knocked on his door and when they got no response site security were alerted and forced entry.
Harry, a second year student at the University of Hull, was found in bed already dead. Paramedics noticed a large gaping wound, the size of a £1, on his back which appeared to be infected. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Another housemate, Kacper-Krysztof Zydron, told the hearing how he has also been bitten on his neck months earlier, in August 2021.
He said it initially started off "hurting a bit", but over a few days it worsened until he could not move his neck. He went to the hospital casualty department and was told to take some paracetamol.
When that failed to work he told his parents about it and they helped him remove pus from the infection which helped relieve the pain. He called his GP and was given antibiotics which cleared his infection.
He emailed Ashcourt Student Housing about a problem with spiders and included an image of a spider Kacper had taken the following day which showed a common house spider. But the inquest heard an inspection by the maintenance team 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. It revealed that there was a normal number of insects in the house given the time of the year. Coroner Paul Marks determined that Harry Bolton's death was caused by sepsis, due to an acute chest infection, due to 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.
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