Housemate of student who died from spider bite was left with a ‘hole’ in his neck from an arachnid

A housemate of a student who died from an infected spider bite has revealed that he was left with a “hole” in his neck after being bitten by an arachnid “the size of his fist” during an infestation.

Hull University student Harry Bolton, 19, died of sepsis after suffering a bizarre reaction to a spider bite in accommodation where there had already been complaints of an invasion.

He was found dead in his shared student house in Chancellor’s Walk four days after being bitten on the back.

Others at the student accommodation complex in Cottingham Road, Hull, East Yorkshire, had already complained of a spider invasion, but an inspection found no infestation, an inquest heard.

One of them was Kacper Zydron, a third-year student, who said that he and his housemates could see large spiders coming out of the attic and scuttling around the rooms, but the owners warned them not to go up there.

He said the students had left the windows open during the spider invasion because their modern student accommodation was getting too hot.

The spiders were large, about the size of a fist. They bit me around August,” Kacper said.

I was in bed when it happened. It wasn’t anything strange, it was just a small bite. It was just a puncture.

“After about a week, it was like a hole in my neck that had started to ooze.”

Kacper said he went to A&E, but claims they just gave him paracetamol, which had little effect.

His parents helped him remove the pus from the infection, and Kacper said that helped ease the pain. He called his GP and asked for antibiotics to heal the wound which cleared up his infection.

Kacper emailed Ashcourt Student Housing about a spider problem with a picture of a common house spider that he had taken attached the next day.

But Hull Coroner’s Court heard that an inspection by the maintenance team found no infestation on the Chancellor’s Walk premises.

A few weeks later, Harry was also bitten. Kacper says that he may have been a similar type of spider, but he isn’t sure.

On Oct. 7, 2021, one of Harry’s housemates realized he hadn’t received a response to a text he sent her, the hearing heard.

After the housemate got home from work that night, he and another housemate knocked on Harry’s door. But when there was no answer, they called site security and broke down the door of his room.

The light came on and they found the ‘promising’ sophomore, Harry, lying on his bed, on his back with his eyes and mouth open.

He was cold to the touch and his housemates and the security team member noticed that his chest was not moving.

Police and paramedics were called, who detected a large open wound the size of a £1 coin on Harry’s back that appeared to be infected.

Harry was found breathless and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Just four days earlier, on October 3, 2021, Harry had told a friend that a spider had bitten him on the back and he wasn’t feeling well.

His friend suggested that he go to the ER to be checked out.

Harry went to Hull Royal Infirmary at 9:40pm that night with a high temperature and high heart rate.

A blood sample was taken and nothing high risk was detected although there was inflammation.

But Ben Rayer, an A&E consultant at Hull Royal Infirmary, told the court this was not something the labs would flag as an immediate risk issue.

At 1:01 a.m. on October 4, Harry was discharged, telling the staff that he was going home to bed and would have a checkup the next day.

The next morning was the last time Harry was seen by his housemates.

The lease stated that low-level pest intrusions were the responsibility of the tenants.

Following Harry’s death, pest control was called to reassure the tenants and a survey was conducted.

Sticky traps were placed. He revealed that there were a normal number of insects in the house given the time of year.

Coroner Paul Marks determined that Harry Bolton’s death was caused by sepsis due to an acute chest infection from an infected wound on his back.

He said: ‘If I hadn’t been bitten by an invertebrate, possibly a spider, I wouldn’t have died by then. It is an incredibly unfortunate case. He had a promising future ahead of him.