By James Gamble • Updated: 02 Dec 2022 • 13:36
Student Harry Bolton; image: Just Giving
Harry Bolton, 19, died just months after complaints were made about a spider infestation at his student accommodation at the University of Hull, in East Yorkshire, England.
The promising student, who was in his second year, had been in hospital days earlier with a temperature and high heart rate after being bitten on his back by a spider, The Irish Sun reports.
But medical staff couldn’t find anything of risk after taking blood samples and allowed the teenager to discharge himself.
Days later, having not heard from their friend for some time, his housemates contacted site security at their shared student house after there was no response to knocks at Harry’s door.
His bedroom door was later broken down, and his friends found Harry lying on his back with his eyes and mouth open and his chest not moving.
Emergency services were called and declared Harry dead at the scene, but also found a hole on his back the size of ‘a one-pound coin’, which appeared as though it were infected.
One of his housemates, Kacper-Krysztof Zydron, told his friend’s inquest he too had been bitten by a spider months before.
Mr Zydron explained the bite, on his neck, eventually became so bad that he also sought medical attention – though doctors simply told him to take some paracetamol.
He later removed the pus from the infected bite, before asking his GP for antibiotics and emailing Ashcourt Student Housing about the spider problem in their shared house.
Mr Zydron sent a photo of one of the spiders to the company, which was identified as a common house spider.
According to The Irish Sun, the inquest also heard that following Harry’s death a pest control team was sent to the house but found a normal amount of insects in the house for the time of year.
Coroner Paul Marks concluded that Harry had died from sepsis, caused by an acute chest infection due to the infected wound on his back.
Mr Marks added: “Had [Harry] not been bitten by an invertebrate – possibly a spider – he would not have died.
“It is an incredibly unfortunate case… He had a promising future ahead of him.”
A Just Giving fundraising page set up in Harry’s memory for Eczema Research has so far raised more than £1,600.
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