Kansas Mom Britagne Miller Recovering After Spider Bites Caused Liver Failure
Britagne Miller was sitting around a campfire with her husband and four kids at Cheney Lake, Kansas, on May 28 when spiders crawled over her leg and bit her more than a dozen times. She barely noticed at first. Four days later she was in surgery, and weeks after that, doctors told her family she might have only days to live. She was released from the hospital on July 11 and is now recovering at home, still waiting on a liver transplant.
A bite that didn’t seem like much
Miller didn’t think much of the bites that night. It wasn’t until four days later that one on her calf started swelling and burning, with pain shooting down into her foot. She checked into Wesley Hospital in Wichita on June 4.
Doctors found a hematoma and went in surgically, pulling almost 300 milliliters of blood clots from her calf. That should have been the hard part. It wasn’t.
When it got worse
Miller already had two blood-clotting disorders from a previous pregnancy, plus liver damage and a list of drug and food allergies. Her body didn’t tolerate the trauma well, and she grew increasingly incoherent over the following days. Doctors began suspecting end-stage liver failure and, after two weeks, recommended hospice.
“They gave me three days up to a month to live,” Miller told KAKE. Five days into what should have been recovery, the surgical wound itself got infected, staph and a gram-negative bacteria, causing tissue death. Two more emergency procedures followed. Miller says she reached a point where she wanted to stop fighting. Thinking about her kids kept her going.
Ten days in the ICU, then a long road home
She spent 10 days in intensive care and more time on the cardiac unit before moving to a regular ward, cycling through blood transfusions, plasma, platelets and antibiotics. Her husband Jake stayed with her and took over full-time care of their four kids. His employer eventually let him go for missing shifts.
Miller’s mother flew in from Utah to help hold things together. The family has been fundraising to cover medical bills, specialist visits, and household costs while Jake is out of work.
Where things stand now
Miller was discharged on July 11 and is now recovering at home, with regular home health care and physical therapy. She isn’t eligible for a liver transplant yet. Her doctors say her blood-clotting disorders need to stabilize first, a process expected to take months, according to a report this week from The Sun Papers.
No one ever confirmed exactly what bit her. Based on the wound and the setting, doctors believe it was a brown recluse, one of two venomous spiders found in Kansas. Kansas State entomologist Dr. Raymond Cloyd says the species hides in places like log piles, stored boxes, and shoes left outside, and tends to bite when it gets trapped against skin.
Why It Matters
Miller’s case is a reminder of how fast a routine injury can spiral for someone with underlying health conditions, and how quickly a family’s finances can unravel when a parent has to leave work to become a full-time caregiver.
