I was working triage for a busy emergency room when a woman rushed in carrying a shoe with a spider squashed on its sole. Frantically she explained that she believed the spider was a black widow and it might have bitten her daughter.
Putting the spider in a specimen cup, I took it to the back desk, where a surgeon happened to be walking by. I told him it was thought to be a black widow. He took the spider out of the cup, laid it on the counter and poked at it.
"Well," I asked, "what do you think?"
"I think it's suffered massive trauma to the abdomen and thorax," he said.
"There's no chance for resuscitation ..."