A man has miraculously survived after he had his stomach removed in a life-saving operation after a venomous sting from his pet animal.
Dean lives happily with his family after the life-saving operation to remove his stomach
A father was paralysed and lost his stomach after he was stung by his own pet scorpion. Dean Armstrong’s body was flooded with deadly poison when the one-clawed creature – named Sue – attacked him as he fed it. He woke up in hospital feeling "like he'd had a stroke" – and had an life-saving operation to remove part of his stomach and pancreas.
Amazingly, despite doctors’ warnings that the scorpion attack almost killed him, the 47-year-old still collects the venomous creatures and now has six.
Dean said: "When I was stung I felt fear for the first time. I thought I was going to die.
"But being told I had a colostomy bag didn't bother me. I'm quite an optimist.
"In hospital I was surrounded by men crying because they had one. But I was just happy to be alive. I'd been told I could die.
"I just had to get used to my bag. I've had some horrible incidents where it's leaked but I've just acted silly to get through it.
"I've not been put off from keeping scorpions either, and about a year ago I got another one.
"I was stung on my thumb, the sting was a pin prick and it didn't even draw blood but it left me with a 20inch scar.
"Still I love scorpions, and don't bear a grudge to them."
The dad-of-two, from Cambridge, has now been left with a colostomy bag but says he tries to "see the funny side of things" - by decorating the bag and even modelling it on a catwalk.
The life-saving operation was conducted successfully
The exotic pet fan was given Sue by a pet shop in Walthamstow, east London, in the Easter 2012 who struggled to sell it due to the fact it only had one claw.
He explained: "I was a regular there. They knew I was an arachnophile – that I collected spiders and scorpions.
"I went in every day and the owners approached me and asked if I would take it on.
"They couldn't sell it as it only had one claw and it couldn't grab its food properly.
"It was a diddy little thing – the size of a matchstick."
Dean, whose father opened a zoo in the sixties, told how he grew up surrounded by venomous creatures – including boa constrictors and tarantulas - so has never feared them.
He has been collecting and rehoming lizards, snakes and scorpions since he was 19.
He said: "I've had over 50 of them of all species. I've been stung loads of times over the years.
"But that day, I scooped Sue up as I was trying to feed her a cricket and her tail whipped over and I felt fear for the first time. I thought I was going to die. It was really scary."
Just a minute after being stung, Dean collapsed.
His cleaner found him and rang for an ambulance, and he was rushed to Whipps Cross Hospital, in east London.
Dean had his stomach removed after the incident and made a miraculous recovery
There, doctors did a blood transfusion to get rid of the scorpion's life-threatening poison.
He said: "When I came to I was paralysed down my right-hand side. It was like I'd had a stroke. I had wobbly lips and couldn't communicate.
"The doctors kept talking about how they wanted to call my family to see me. I thought I was going to die and I panicked.
"I was so relieved when I came out of it about an hour later.
"I think Sue must have scuttled under the floorboards because she was nowhere to be seen after that, lost forever. I was worried for my two kids, Roman, 18, and Gretel, 14."
Dean improved quickly and was allowed home the following day.
But weeks later, after he complained of ongoing pain, medics discovered that the scorpion's poison had damaged his pancreas, causing it to inflame.
He explained: "Doctors said the poison had attacked my pancreas. It didn't know how to digest it, so it had tried to digest itself which is what had caused the pains. They had to drain part of it away."
His pancreas was drained of poison and two months later a cyst was discovered, which later burst.
He explained: "It was about a year after the scorpion stung me that the cyst then burst and I needed an operation to stitch it up.
"Doctors went through my stomach to get to it.
"Everything was fine for a few days but then I was vomiting blood and the pains started again and my stomach burst open.
"Doctors said I was going to die."
Dean was rushed in to theatre at York University Hospital and when he woke up, he learned surgeons had removed his stomach, gall bladder, half his pancreas and some of his intestines.
He said: "When I was told all this I didn't care. I was just pleased I was alive. I'd thought I was going to die.
"Then I was told I had a colostomy bag. I didn't even know what it was.
"The sting I'd suffered a year earlier hadn't even been that bad, it was what was triggered by it that was so much worse. I'd suffered complications."
But Dean says is happy to be alive – and having to wear a bag was a small price to pay for surviving the sting.
"I think I've had to be silly to get through having a colostomy bag because if I wasn't happy I'd be too miserable about it," he said.
"Occasionally I'll have an embarrassing moment when the bag leaks, but on the whole it goes unnoticed by others and myself.
"It's not a problem to me. A bit of preparation is all that's needed when I go out."
Dean now lends his support to the Colostomy Association and has attended several open days they've held for further advice and information.
Dean still has his favourite pets even after the incident
And last summer he even took part in a catwalk show for them and modelled his bag.
He said: "I'm trying to help raise awareness of them now.
"I've decorated my bag before. I put a face on it. I modelled it last year for a catwalk show too.
"I've always been optimistic about things though.
"I wasn't in the mood for dying. Now anything else has been a bonus."
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