WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW.
An eight-year-old girl is afraid to go back in her house after she was bitten by a poisonous spider in her own bathroom.
Abbie Kinnaird was left with a hole in her hand after she came across a venomous ‘brown recluse’, which fell from the ceiling and sank its fangs into her.
You expect these sorts of things to happen to Australia, but this was a rented home in Essex.
When a bug exterminator was called in, the family claim he found two more spiders tucked up in her bed.
Her mum Hayley, 35, said: ‘Abbie’s been very brave through it all, but she’s terrified of going into the flat.
‘She shakes and cries the moment I mention it worrying that there are other spiders in there.’
After the bite, which caused necrosis of the flesh, Abbie had to stay in hospital for four days.
She was hooked up to an antibiotic drip three times a day to flush out the infection within the gaping wound, the size of a 10p piece.
Hayley said the pest control man also found false widow spiders at their home in Colchester.
‘He didn’t recommend coming back to the house.’
Hayley said the mark started as a red spot but became sore and inflamed with a black centre so she took her to a walk-in centre the following day where Abbie was given a course of antibiotics.
A week later the bite still hadn’t improved and she also had bumps on her arm and a rash so stay-at-home mum Hayley took her to an out-of-hours doctor who advised going to hospital.
Hayley said: ‘She was admitted to Broomfield Hospital at 8am and put her on a drip straight away.
‘We were told she would need a skin graft and within a couple of hours she was sent into surgery.
‘Her veins are so tiny so they couldn’t administer the anaesthetic via injection, instead they had to use a mask which took ten seconds to work.
‘They cut out all the black and flushed out whatever was inside.’
Their landlady arranged for pest control experts to fumigate the house which Hayley claims they described as a ‘medium infestation’.
Hayley, Abbie and her 10-year-old brother Rhys have been staying with her mum in her one-bedroom flat.
Hayley said: ‘My mum’s having a new kitchen fitted so it’s a building site – so having the four of us there is a real squeeze.
‘I’ve asked Colchester Council to see if they can set us up with emergency housing but they say they’ve got nothing available, and can only offer a hostel which I don’t feel safe staying in with the children.
A Colchester Borough Homes spokesperson said: ‘To protect privacy we cannot go into very specific details about matters relating to our customers.
‘In this case the customer was offered short-term temporary accommodation, but this was not taken up.
‘Our Housing Options Team offer housing advice and solutions to those who are threatened with homelessness.’
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