According to Telemundo, three brothers, ages 8, 10, and 12, from the Andean town of Chayanta in Bolivia went out to graze goats when they stumbled upon a black widow spider. As the Epidemiology Chief of the Bolivian Health Ministry tells it, the spider reminded them of Spider-Man. I'll let the Google Translated article tell the rest:
The spider was a black widow and the boys decided to "experiment" to see if the sting gives magical powers, so the older one was bitten "by stimulating it with a stick", then the other and finally the younger one helped by the other two, according to the story of the head of Epidemiology.
The first symptoms appeared within a few minutes and the mother was scared to see them cry, so they were taken to a Chayanta health center, but when they did not improve with the medicines they were given, they were transferred to a hospital in the small town of Llallagua, where they saw that their situation was complicated.
The next day they were taken to the Children's Hospital in La Paz, with muscular pain, sweating, fever and general tremors, Pietro explained, and after applying a serum against bites, they improved until they were discharged on the 20th.
Luckily, the kids are okay. Unluckily, they neither turned into Spider-Man, nor Black Widow, which probably should have been the more obvious powerset despite the fact that her abilities have nothing to do with spider bites.
I was once electrocuted by a guitar amp through the pickups on my guitar, and I, too, was disappointed that I did not get any cool powers from the trauma.
Little brothers get bitten by poisonous spider to become "Spider-Man" [Telemundo]
Image: Public Domain via James Gathany / CDC
