Mum Nearly Loses LEG From False Widow Spider Bite In Her Bed
WARNING: Graphic pics
A bite from Britain’s most venomous spider nearly resulted in a mum-of-four losing her LEG when it crawled into her bed at night.
Terrified Aideen Hynes had only just slipped under the covers at her home in County Down, Northern Ireland, when a false widow spider sank its fangs into her calf.
The bite was instantly painful and Aideen, 34, leapt out to find the culprit - but it had already scuttled away.
Aideen recalled: “I felt something crawling on my leg under the duvet and tried to brush it off.
"It must have thought it was under attack because the next minute it bit me. The pain was agonising.
“[Husband] Darrin knew immediately from the puncture marks that it as a spider bite.
"We turned the bedroom upside down but we couldn’t find it anywhere. I didn’t get a wink of sleep.”
The bite became serious when the venom started to spread up her leg and Aideen was rushed to hospital in complete agony as her leg ballooned to twice its normal size.
Doctors gave her an intensive treatment of antihistamines and antibiotics to stop the venom - which had spread into an ankle and foot.
They feared that if it got worse they would have had to cut the infected flesh from her body.
Aideen said: "My leg was completely swollen and it was scabbing over - it was oozing with puss and I couldn’t walk. It was awful.
"I had to be given crutches. I thought I was going to lose my leg.
“It got so painful I was ready to chop off my own leg.”
Aideen was given four courses of antibiotics and had to go the GP every day for three weeks to have the wounds cleaned and redressed.
She said: “It’s finally getting better now, but for a while it was touch and go.”
Luckily Aideen can sleep easy again as her husband Darrin, 35, managed to catch the culprit and set it free in a field near their house.
False widow spider numbers have gone up in their millions over the past two years.
Their bite can be painful and schools have been closed after nests were found on the property.
Pics: SWNS
