Children from all around the globe admire their favorite superheroes. They are fascinated by the heroes’ superpowers and get inspired by their incredibly decent moral values. Unfortunately, sometimes kids find it difficult to differentiate between reality and fiction and this often gets them hurt.
In Bolivia, three little brothers have been hospitalized after letting a black widow spider bite them, hoping it would turn them into their favorite superhero Spider-Man.
The injured boys live in the town of Chayanta, in the southwestern Bolivian department of Potosi, as UNILAD reveals. They are aged between 8 and 12. Apparently, they thought they would gain spider-like superpowers, just like Peter Parker in the Marvel franchise, who was bitten by a radioactive spider and became a superhero.
Sadly, the boys were too young to tell the difference between fiction and reality. While playing with the sheep owned by their family, the three superhero lovers found a black widow spider. They immediately came up with the extremely dangerous idea that, if they let the spider bite them, they would develop superpowers.
At the time, their mother was reportedly out collecting wood. The younglings taunted the black widow with a stick and allowed it to bite them all. However, instead of becoming extraordinary superhumans, the boys quickly developed symptoms from the venomous black widow bites.
Although most people who are bitten by a black widow spider don’t suffer any severe damage, its venom can be deadly to infants, the elderly, or people in an unstable condition.
However, black widows bite only when provoked.
Clearly, the boys were aware of that fact, as they teased the spider with a stick to get it to bite them.
When the mother found her sons crying as a result of the painful symptoms caused by the spider’s venom, she instantly took them to the local health center. The nursing staff gave the boys medicine for the bites. Unfortunately, the medicine didn’t work, so they were sent to a hospital in the town of Llallagua before being transferred to the Children’s Hospital in the Bolivian capital La Paz.
The Head of Epidemiology of the Health Ministry, Virgilio Pietro, explained that the three brothers continued to suffer from muscle pains, sweating, fever, and generalized trembling until they were treated with a serum, which proved effective.
When Virgilio Pietro mentioned the unusual case at a press conference, he strongly advised parents to help their children find the difference between fact and fiction. He noted:
“For children everything is real, films are real, dreams could be real, and they (children) are the hope of our life.”
Luckily, in only five days, the young superhero fans were allowed to go back home, as their health condition had improved. Hopefully, they will now learn to make the difference between real-life and comic book adventures.
