A housewife bitten on the foot by a false widow spider more than two months ago was re-admitted to hospital with a second infection.

Britain’s most venomous arachnid struck when Alison Blackburn, 49, was in bed at home in Bryant Road, Strood.

Within three hours her leg had swollen so much she could not get her foot in her shoe.
She ended up in intensive care and needed an operation to drain the spider’s venom from her foot.

However, despite a her operation, a stay in hospital, doctor’s appointments and even a visit to The Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London, Ms Blackburn, was readmitted to Medway Maritime Hospital, in Gillingham, where she was treated last week before being discharged on Saturday.

Her nightmare started on January 10, when she woke at about 4am with sharp pain in her stomach.

When she got up, her partner, Gary Pelatt, corr noticed her foot was red but she said it did not hurt.

Just a few hours later her foot and ankle had swollen so much she could not get her shoe on so she hobbled down to her nearby GP surgery.
Just a few hours later the swelling and rash had spread to her pelvic area and an ambulance was called.

However, after her hospital stay and numerous appointments she was recuperating at home, but last Sunday March 9, she had to be readmitted to Pembrook Ward.

Ms Blackburn, said: “I’ve got another infection under my toes, I feel terrible, this has been going on far too long now, no one seems to know how to treat the bite properly.
“Even when I went to the The Hospital for Tropical Diseases they just gave me antibiotics for it and they never worked.

Doctors at Medway have now stopped giving me antibiotics as they don’t seem to be working and could be making me feel worse.

“It’s just all too much, I just want some answers about why the infection won’t go away, but nobody seems to know how to treat it.

“I had an MRI scan the other day, but the doctors said it didn’t show anything.
“I just want to get back to my old life before this spider bit me and I want to feel well again, it’s a joke.

“I’ve been in hospital a week now and we seem no further on than we were when I arrived.
This spider bite has made me ill for the past two months, I really am sick of it and just want to get better.”