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Bite from brown recluse spider kills St. Louis County woman

St. Louis Public Radio
Published April 4, 2008 at 11:19 a.m. CDT

By AP/KWMU

St. Louis – A spider bite has killed a woman in the St. Louis suburb of Town and Country.

Rita Brumm, who was involved in many community organizations, died Monday of complications from a bite by a brown recluse. She was 40 years old.

The spider was hiding in a sweater that Brumm had just retrieved from a closet.

She had been treated at a hospital for a month before succumbing to the venom.

Dr. Michael Mullins at Barnes-Jewish Hospital said brown recluse bites are common, but fatalities are extremely rare.

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