Robert’s holiday ended in A&E after gruesome spider bite
Spanish nurse diagnosed golfer’s condition
friend who is a pharmacist. He said it was an unusual blister.
“My jeans were rubbing it and it burst. When I got home, I had sickness and diarrhoea.”
Robert went to Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital where he spoke to a Spanish nurse who works with his wife Lynne.
She told him it looked like he’d been bitten by a spider.
Robert, who’s from Lochgelly, Fife, then saw a doctor who agreed with the diagnosis.
A sunshine golf holiday ended in a hospital visit for Robert (second from right) after the bite.
After a course of antibiotics, he was quickly on the mend.
British pest controller Gray Salt, who runs Local Pest exterminators in Marbella and Costa del Sol, said he believes the culprit would have been a brown recluse spider.
He said: “The brown recluse necrotises the flesh and causes a bull’s-eye shaped blister.
“At the time of the bite, you’d
Robert recovered
after a course of antibiotics. maybe feel a mild sting, but the pain increases, as does the damage to the soft tissues.”
Robert isn’t the only Brit to have been bitten by a spider in Spain.
Sue Isaac, 58, fell dangerously unwell after she was bitten by a spider in Albox, Almeria, in 2013.
At the time, she said it felt like she’d been stung by a bee, but then started to feel unwell and developed a bruise on her thigh.
Within days, the bruise doubled in size and blisters developed around it.
Sue was admitted to an intensive care after an infection entered her body via the bite. She needed six months of treatment, including antibiotics, before she could go home.
Entomologist professor Adam Hart said there wasn’t enough information to determine if a spider had caused Robert’s wound.
Robert added: “My friends were calling me Spider-Man.
“The next time I hit a ball into the rough, I think I’ll maybe just drop it.”