False black widow spider bite leads to ‘zombie foot’
A UK woman who says she was bitten by a suspected false widow spider during a hospital visit, is considering having her “zombie foot” amputated.
Gemma Hunter, 41, has suffered seven months of pain and complications as a result of the bite. She has lost her job as a school traffic warden and has been threatened with eviction after falling behind with her rent.
The bite, believed to be from the UK’s most poisonous spider, the false widow, caused a hole more than a 2.5cm deep in her right foot, which became infected with cellulitis.
The single mother said that if the problems continued she might consider having an amputation from the ankle down. “It’s causing me constant pain every day.
“I have black skin where the wound is. My sons call it a zombie foot.
“The tissue underneath has not grown back properly. I’m struggling to put any pressure on it and if anything touches my foot the sensation is horrendous.”
Hunter, of Rossendale, Lancashire, had two jobs – as a lollipop lady and a zero hours contract with G4S as a security marshal – but lost her income from both when she became ill.
She said she was bitten in September when she was at the bedside of one of her five sons in the Royal Blackburn Hospital.
Hunter fell asleep and woke in the early hours to see the spider on her foot.
“I reached to brush it off which is when doctors think it bit me, because I probably aggravated it. It bit me twice in a vein.”
The next morning she had a lump and was in severe pain. The foot became infected with cellulitis and doctors have been battling the problem ever since.
Hunter said doctors agreed it was a spider bite, and a tropical disease specialist at North Manchester General believed a false widow could be to blame. – Daily Mail