Man had his stomach removed after being bitten by a SCORPION

February 11, 2016  14:00

A father-of-two who was stung by his pet scorpion has revealed how he was left paralysed and forced to undergo an emergency operation in which surgeons removed his entire stomach.

Dean Armstrong, 47, from Cambridge, was feeding Sue the scorpion in August 2012 when she stung, paralysing him and flooding his body with potentially fatal poison.

Mr Armstrong was bitten in the thumb and says within a minute he had collapsed to the floor where he was discovered by his cleaner who immediately called an ambulance.

Mr Armstrong was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital, in east London where he underwent an emergency blood transfusion in an attempt to flush the scorpion poison from his system.

When he regained consciousness the entire right hand side of his body was paralysed and he could not speak, although the effect wore off after an hour, much to his relief.

He was allowed home the following day, but weeks later he was still in pain - and doctors discovered the poison had severely damaged and inflamed his pancreas.

He was forced to undergo another operation to drain the organ of poison and again was allowed to return home - but a year after he was stung a cyst developed and then burst, leading him to need another operation to stitch it up.

Doctors were forced to go through his stomach to get to the rip - but days later he began vomiting blood and his stomach 'burst' open and he was again rushed into theatre.

When he woke up he was told surgeons had been forced to remove his stomach, half his pancreas, his gall bladder and some of his intestines. 

He now has to wear a colostomy bag but Mr Armstrong says he prefers to remain positive and the experience with Sue has not put him off owning exotic pets.

The self-confessed arachnophile said he has never been scared of venomous creatures as he grew up surrounded by them - his father opened a zoo in the 1960s which boasted boa constrictors and tarantulas.

Inspired by this, he started his own collection of lizards, snakes and scorpions when he was 19 and has owned and rehomed around 50 different species all together.

During that time he admits he was stung dozens of times - but it was only on the day he was attacked by Sue that he feared for his life.

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter


 
  • Video
 
 
  • Event calendar
 
 
  • Archive