A woman bitten by a false widow spider has been left with such an “unsightly” mark it could cost her hundreds of euro to fix it.
RTE’s Liveline caller Sinead, from Dublin, told Joe Duffy that further treatment could come to more than €900 after a dermatologist recommended a biopsy.
She told the show that the wound looks like a cigarette burn and has become an “expensive nuisance”.
Sinead said: “I thought it was a pretty minor issue because it wasn’t painful or anything like that but it was very ugly looking, inflamed and angry looking.
“I spent a lot going to consultants about it and they want to give me a biopsy.
“By the end of all this, it will cost about €800 or €900, which is a huge amount of money for anyone to pay.”
Sinead originally thought the mark was from her hot water bottle but realised that was impossible as it had a cover.
She thought it would go within a day or two but the mark on the inside of her lower forearm soon flared up into an ugly scabby pus-filled blister that has not faded.
After three weeks Sinead saw her doctor and ended up at a private hospital where a dermatologist told her that it was a bite.
She said: “I went to a health shop and got something to fight the bacteria but that didn’t work, and then I went to the GP and got antibiotics but they didn’t work and so I ended up seeing a dermatologist.”
Sinead said she is not concerned for her health and has considered leaving the mark on her limb untreated.
She said: “The bite itself doesn’t frighten me, it’s just the cost of it – it’s expensive.
“It’s quite ugly looking, it’s unsightly but I’m tempted to just leave it because it’s not painful and if I go down the biopsy route and all the rest of it I will have spent about €900.”
The creature was first spotted in Ireland in the 1990s. Experts believe they were carried here in imported fruit and exotic plants heading for garden centres.
