Saturday, May 4, 2013

Did heavy metal guitarist Jeff Hanneman — of Slayer — die of a spider bite?

The band's website said in January that he "had contracted necrotizing fasciitis 'likely caused by a spider bite, and has been undergoing surgeries, skin grafts and intense rehab since." He died Hanneman died Thursday of liver failure:
... Dr. Donna Seger who routinely treats spider-bite victims at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee... said that spider bites do not lead to organ failure. But infections -- which could develop after a variety of scenarios ranging from a mosquito bite or even a scratch on the skin from a nail -- can sometimes lead to bad outcomes....

Seger stressed that, on the whole, patients with spider bites recover fine if they follow medical instructions and keep their bite areas clean so that a scab can form and fall off.

"I think it's really important that spider bites be understood because there's so many urban legends about, you know, you get a spider bite, your limb falls off and you die," Seger said. "That doesn't happen."
UPDATE: It wasn't the spider.

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