Atlanta, Georgia - Atlanta-based singer Gabe Lustman had to seek urgent medical attention and almost lost his leg due to a spider bite, which he initially thought was a harmless mosquito bite.

Singer-songwriter Gabe Lustman didn't think much of it when his leg started itching in August and he kept scratching it.

He initially thought it was a "mosquito bite or something," the 30-year-old told the New York Post, but over time the spot became discolored, Lustman recalled.

"I thought I bumped my leg because it kind of looked like a bulls-eye, it looked like a bruise," he said.

From then on, the R'n'B artist's discomfort grew worse, and just one day later, he said he felt so ill that he visited a clinic.

Lustman learned that his leg was infected – by the bite of a poisonous brown recluse spider, which in the worst case could have even killed him.

Luckily, going to the hospital saved Lustman just in time: if the musician had come just a little later, his leg would have had to be amputated, doctors told him.

"I waited until I could not walk anymore, I was hobbling. I couldn’t put any pressure on my leg," he remembered.

"I was really scared, man," he admitted. "I’m very blessed and grateful I made it out with my leg."

In the meantime, the singer is doing better, even though he still can't put full weight on his leg and the skin around the bite wound is still dry and scarred.

The brown recluse, a web spider in the six-eyed sand spider family, is most common in the Midwest and southern United States.

The venomous spider is basically non-aggressive and only bites when it is in danger of being crushed.

The brown recluse's bite causes no pain and is often not even noticed by those affected, as in the case of Gabe Lustman, but this doesn't make these critters any less dangerous.

The spider's venom can destroy skin tissue, leading to necrosis. Medical treatment in such cases is absolutely necessary.