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Boy killed by spider bite ‘was going to give his own toys’

Posted at 9:15 AM, Dec 01, 2014
and last updated 2014-12-01 11:49:31-05

MARSHALL COUNTY, Ala. -- A 5-year-old Alabama boy was already working on a plan to give away his toys when his family was struck by tragedy last week.

“He wanted all the kids in Africa to have toys,” Jessica Carlisle said of her son Branson. “I mean he was going to give his own toys.”

Last Sunday, Branson asked his mother to scratch his back, saying something had bitten him. The bite was from a brown recluse spider.

Branson was taken to a hospital, where his condition worsened. He closed his eyes and his heart stopped.

“The only time they got his heartbeat back was the seventeenth time they shocked him, and they had his heart beating for four seconds, and I had enough time to tell him I loved him,” Jessica Branson said.

Jessica and her family are going to carry out Branson's wish and donate his Christmas presents to other families in need.

Read more from WHNT-TV, our sister station in Huntsville, Alabama. >>