A mother of four from Goddard, Kansas, is fighting for her life after a cluster of spiders bit her during a family camping trip. Britagne Miller was swarmed by about 15 arachnids while camping near Cheney Lake, according to a GoFundMe page set up by her husband, Jake Miller.
Miller developed painful blood clots in her legs following the bites. She also suffers from two rare blood conditions and a compromised liver, which made the surgery to remove the blood clots more complicated.
According to the Daily Mail, doctors told Miller in June that she had only days left to live. She has defied those odds so far.
Trip near Wichita turned into a medical emergency
The ordeal began on May 28, when the Miller family went camping in Cheney State Park, about 35 miles west of Wichita. Miller told local ABC affiliate KAKE that she was sitting by the campfire when she felt like 15 spiders crawled up her legs and into her shirt. “I’m terrified of spiders,” she told KAKE. She said she had spider bites on both sides of her leg.
Over the following week, Miller developed severe pain in her right leg. She described the pain, saying it “felt like being stabbed.” Sudden health scares during trips are not unheard of; one traveler’s entire body began shutting down within minutes while vacationing on a remote Pacific island.
Miller was admitted to Wesley Hospital in Wichita on June 4. According to the GoFundMe page, a large hematoma, or collection of blood, formed on her right calf from the bite. The pain was severe, and she needed surgery to remove large blood clots and drain the area. Over the following weeks, she was often incoherent as her condition got worse, the fundraiser states.
The GoFundMe page explains that Miller is also dealing with end-stage liver failure, which made the surgery riskier. Doctors warned she could bleed out during the procedure, according to the fundraiser. Multiple doctors said she might have only days to a month to live and recommended hospice care after just two weeks in the hospital, the page states.
Despite this, Miller told doctors she would keep fighting to live for her family, and she asked them to do everything possible to save her, according to the GoFundMe. She spent 10 days in the medical intensive care unit, then more time in the cardiac ICU, before she was moved to a regular hospital floor.
Doctors have not confirmed which type of spider bit Miller, but they believe it was likely a brown recluse spider, according to the report. Brown recluse spiders are less than an inch long, with legs that span about the size of a US quarter. They are one of two venomous spider species native to Kansas, and bites from them can range from mild irritation to serious infections.
Miller received several treatments to try to save her life, including blood transfusions, plasma, platelets, cryoprecipitate, antibiotics, and potassium, the fundraiser states. Just as she appeared to be improving, she developed a blood infection along with a bacterial staph infection.
According to the GoFundMe page, the infection caused tissue damage around her stitches, and doctors had to perform two bedside procedures to remove the damaged skin. She was placed on additional antibiotics as a result. In other cases, unusual physical symptoms during travel have led people to seek out symptoms of a rare disease before receiving a diagnosis.
Miller now needs a liver transplant, but doctors have said it could be several months before she is stable enough for the operation, according to the fundraiser.
Jake Miller wrote on the GoFundMe page that he has watched his wife endure more pain than he ever thought a person could survive, but that she still finds the strength to fight. He said he has stayed by her side throughout the ordeal while also caring for their four children, who are aged nine, 12, 14, and 15.
Jake said he lost his job because he could not keep up with the work schedule his employer required during the medical emergency. He wrote that there was never a question about where he needed to be, but that losing his income and insurance has put the family in a difficult financial position.
Published: Aug 3, 2026 01:45 pm