We all probably at one point in our lives dreamed of growing up and becoming a superhero.
There's an eight-year-old boy in Bolivia who wanted nothing more than to be Spider-Man and took some pretty drastic measures to achieve his goal. In fact, it could have turned potentially deadly.
According to Newsweek, the boy let a venomous black widow spider bite him, hoping it would have the same effect as when the radioactive spider bit Peter Parker, giving him the powers of Spider-Man.
After three hours, the boy began feeling ill, experiencing body aches and intense muscle contractions.
He eventually told his mother he was bitten by a "colorful spider," and after doctors at the Hospital General San Juan de Dios in the city of Oruro worked out the boy had been bitten by a black widow, treated him with anti-venom and his condition stabilized within half an hour.
Ernesto Vásquez, head of the Zoonotic Diseases Program of the Departmental Health Service of Oruro told the Spanish news agency EFE that he encourages parents to educate their young children about the risks these spiders possess.
He said, "These black spiders with red backs are black widows. They do not cause anyone to become Spider-Man—on the contrary, they are putting lives at risk."
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