Too bad. The association is already made. I'm gonna get me a poisonous spider just in case I ever get paralyzed.. .you know, like an epi-pen just in case I have a food allergy. I'll keep it in the first aid kit with all the snake oil I have bottled.

do you know for sure that this is a lie? could this man really 'not' walk before this bite by the spider or 'do' you know what you are talking about? just wondering

Laura --

It is asserted in press reports that the man couldn't walk, that he was bitten by a poisonous spider, and that the latter somehow rectified the former. I don't know that any of these are facts, but assuming for a moment that the first two are true, and assuming the man's paralysis really has been cured, there is still no particularly good reason to believe that spider venom had anything to do with his recovery.

It's a very cool idea, and we were as much taken with it as anyone, but it is not supported by the facts. Or, as you might say, the 'facts.'

Phil,
looking on wikipedia, it seems like there has not been a tremendous amount of research on recluses. I would assume this is because they don't bite a lot.

It seems their family produces mainly necrotoxic effects. Based on some of that nerve regrowing work in the past few days, I could imagine that a possible scenario was the venom from the bite killed a few cells, and then the body repaired them in the correct state, whereas it hadn't healed correctly when the serious injury took place.

Since the guy was not able to walk before and now can, ( assuming that is certifiable) it is certainly worth some further study.