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March 16, 2009

Terre Haute man battles back after brown recluse spider bite

Farris Shahadey lost leg after August 2004 bite

By Brian M. Boyce

TERRE HAUTE — A fear of spiders doesn’t seem so irrational after talking with Farris Shahadey.

Bitten on the right ankle by a brown recluse spider in August 2004, Shahadey’s battle with the ensuing illness brought a victory Tuesday with a new prosthetic leg.

“I just got it yesterday,” he said Wednesday afternoon, sitting on a couch in his living room. “I’ve been on this couch for four years,” he said, noting that he can finally stand and walk now with some assistance, something he’s been unable to do since 2004.

“It affected my whole life. I contemplated suicide,” the 55-year-old husband and father of three said.

The brown recluse, also known as a fiddleback spider, has a distinctive violin-shaped marking on its back and belongs to the Sicariidae family of arachnids.

Living in wood sheds and closets from the southern Midwest to the Mexican border, the spider’s poisonous bite can result in extreme damage, as Shahadey can attest.

“I didn’t even know I’d got bit at first,” he said.

The proprietor of Farris Fence Co. for 30 years was used to working outside and getting bitten by the various bugs and insects dwelling in fence rows and lawns. But he remembers the day he was bitten by the brown recluse; afterward, he became physically ill and had to go inside.

It wasn’t until later that he noticed a small brown spot the size of a penny on his ankle. Within two days it grew to the size of a tennis ball and began to look rotten.

Doctors immediately diagnosed the spider’s bite and began what would become more than four years of cutting on Shahadey.

The first attempts to cut the poison out left an unhealing, gaping hole in his leg so deep that his Achilles tendon, muscles and bone were exposed, he said, noting, “that’s when the pain started.”

The poison apparently never left his system, and the resulting circulation problems made his leg feel “on fire 24/7,” he said.

Shahadey marched through four to five Vicodin a day all the way up to OxyContin and “every pain medication known to man” as the lack of blood flow burned at his nerves.

At one point he tried to get up and fell, breaking some ribs and further damaging the leg irreparably, which he said is why the eventual amputation went up above the knee.

“It just killed the leg,” his wife, Dawn, said, noting the circulation in his leg was so bad that gangrene had taken over and eventually could have killed him.

Both Shahadey’s gall bladder and appendix were removed and a heart stent had to be placed before he finally asked for and received the amputation about four years later, on Sept. 25, 2008.

But it hadn’t been without a fight.

The doctors and staff of Terre Haute Regional Hospital’s Center for Wound Care tried “every treatment known to man,” said Dawn, recalling the variety of efforts made to save life and limb.

“There’s nothing like them,” Shahadey said. “They treated me like a human being.”

But in the end, the leg was too far gone to save and the poison was working its way up the body.

“After the amputation, his vitals came right up,” Dawn said. “Who would think you’d get bit by something that would change your life?”

To this day, the leg which carried him more than half a century still seems to be there from time to time.

“It’s all in my brain,” Shahadey said, describing “phantom pain” and the strange sensation of wiggling toes and flexing a calf muscle that aren’t there any more. “It’s still weird to me because I can’t feel it,” he said of the prosthetic.

But as unbearable as the physical pain was, the emotional depression was worse, he said.

Self-employed and accustomed to a life of manual labor outdoors, he was forced onto Social Security disability and his weight fell to 110 pounds from 150.

At one point, he was so weak, he couldn’t lift a gallon of milk.

“Without her, I’d never have been able to succeed,” Shahadey said of his wife, referring to her as “an angel.”

Family, friends and the community of St. George Orthodox Church also were by their side, with Father David Moretti coming to the hospital regularly.

“Father David’s been really unbelievable,” Dawn said. “He’s been an inspiration.”

Now, Shahadey’s looking forward to playing ball with his kids, ages 12, 14 and 20. He’s weighing in at 135 pounds, without the 10-pound prosthetic limb, which soon will be replaced by a permanent one.

Taking physical therapy three times a week, doctors expect he’ll be able to walk without a walker within six months to a year.

“After four years of sitting on this couch, it’s just unbelievable,” he said.

Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.

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