Kansas Mom Survives Spider Bite, Fights for Liver Transplant

When Britagne Miller chose her family over hospice care, she began a fight that doctors said she couldn't win.

The Goddard, Kansas mother was enjoying a campfire at Cheney Lake with her family on May 28 when spiders crawled on her, leaving bites across her body. Four days later, a painful bruise near a bite on her calf sent her to the hospital with shooting pain down her leg.

What happened next turned into a life-threatening emergency. Miller, who has blood clotting disorders from a previous pregnancy and a compromised liver, needed immediate surgery despite her fears of never waking up.

Surgeons removed nearly 300 milliliters of blood clots and installed a drain. But five days into recovery, her wound became infected with staph and a gram-negative bacteria.

Doctors delivered devastating news. They believed Miller was in end-stage liver failure with only days to a month left to live.

"They couldn't keep my levels above even critical," Miller said. "They gave me three days up to a month to live, so that was scary."

Miller refused hospice care. Instead, she spent weeks in the medical and cardio intensive care unit, remembering only glimpses of her time there.

"I was like, I give up. I'm done being cut open. I'm done being poked and prodded. I'm done hurting," Miller said. "Then I thought about all of them."

That thought of her family pulled her through. On July 11, she left the hospital and enrolled in at-home care, beating odds that medical professionals said were insurmountable.

Why This Inspires

Miller's story shows the power of finding your reason to keep fighting. After surviving multiple surgeries and infections that should have ended her life, she's now focused on getting her hemoglobin levels high enough to qualify for a liver transplant.

Her experience also carries an important safety reminder. Experts suspect a brown recluse spider, one of two venomous spiders in Kansas, caused the bite. Raymond Cloyd, a horticultural entomologist at Kansas State, recommends sealing cracks in homes and shaking out shoes before wearing them, especially in areas where brown recluse spiders hide.

Miller's journey isn't over, but she's already won the battle doctors said she'd lose.