Spider bite nearly kills holidaymaker in Spain

A BRITISH woman bitten by a spider while sunbathing on a beach in Spain has narrowly escaped death.

Sue Isaac, 58, was bitten on the bottom by the dangerous arachnid, while holidaying at a friend’s villa in Albox, Almeria.

She said: “I sat down on my sarong that I’d left out overnight on a sun bed and thought, ‘Ooh that really hurt’ and I realised I’d got bitten.

“It brought tears to my eyes, it was like a bee sting but it didn’t go away.”

Over the next week Mrs Isaac started to feel unwell and noticed that a small bruise had developed on the inside of her left thigh.

She added: “I felt poorly all the time, I had a fever and no energy.”

Within days, the bruise had doubled in size and was surrounded by clusters of blisters and Mrs Isaac could not get out of bed.

She was taken to hospital and admitted to an intensive care unit where doctors told her an infection had entered her body via the spider bite.

Mrs Isaac was given antibiotics but after eight days in hospital, her left thigh had swollen to three times its normal size and the bruise had grown to 10 inches.

Tests found 14 types of bacteria in the wound, including flesh-eating Streptococcus pyogenes.

She said: “’I thought I was going to die, or, at best, I thought I was going to lose my leg.

“At one point I asked to be left alone because I wanted to be by myself to die.

“I can’t believe I got through it.”

She required six months of further treatment before she could return home to Braintree, in Essex.