Georgia man almost lost leg to a brown recluse spider bite. What to know about symptoms that can cause "excruciating pain."

When Gabe Lustman woke up with a swollen spot on his leg a few weeks ago, he had no idea he would wind up in a hospital for nearly a week due to a spider bite.

Lustman, a pop and R&B singer based in Atlanta, Georgia, doesn't know when or how he was bitten, but said doctors confirmed it was a brown recluse spider, a species predominantly seen in the south-central and midwestern areas of the U.S.

Similar to the black widow spider, another venomous species found in the U.S., brown recluse spiders aren't categorized as aggressive and typically only bite when threatened.