Man has legs amputated after being bitten by whitetail spider in Victoria

UPDATE: A FILIPINO man who had both his legs amputated in a Victorian hospital may have contracted a bacterial infection from Asia. The tourist now faces up to a year in hospital.

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A MAN who has had both legs amputated following what was initially thought to be an infection caused by a white tail spider bite will spend at least a year in hospital.

Doctors are now understood to be considering the more likely cause of Terry Pareja’s illness to be a bacteria from Asia.

Mr Pareja is from the Philippines, does not have travel insurance and medical costs are mounting.

Mr Pareja’s family this afternoon released a statement through their Go Fund Me fundraising page.

“Further to my last update, the doctors have informed us that my father must stay in hospital care for 12-18 months,” daughter Jeffmarey Pareja said in the statement.

Miss Pareja said the family hoped to raise $30,000 to cover expenses but now knew the amount needed would be far greater.

“We thank you for any donations you can contribute,” she said.

It is feared Mr Pareja might also lose his arms.

The Go Fund Me page launched on March 2 had raised $14,000 by this afternoon.

The tourist’s legs have been amputated and he’s lost the use of an arm after what was earlier believed to be a white-tailed spider bite in regional Victoria.

Filipino tourist Terry Pareja’s family say they were told by doctors a bite from a white-tailed spider might have caused flesh necrosis that led to the amputations.

But Mr Pareja doesn’t remember being bitten by a white-tailed spider, and even if he had been, it is unlikely its venom would have caused the necrosis, an expert says.

Mr Pareja was visiting his sister in Birchip a month ago when he began feeling unwell and his leg swelled, his brother-in-law, Ray Ogleby, says.

Terry Pareja. Picture: gofundme

White-tailed spider

“He (could) hardly walk on Saturday and on Sunday (his leg) started to turn black,” Mr Ogleby told 3AW on Wednesday.

“There’s no doctor service in Birchip on Saturday and Sunday, so he waited until Monday.”

The local doctor sent him straight to Horsham hospital that day, February 27, and his right leg was amputated, Mr Ogleby said.

Mr Pareja was flown to Melbourne that night, and his left leg was also removed.

Mr Ogleby says a toxicology report pointed to a “possible spider bite”.

Professor Julian White says it is unlikely the man’s amputation was caused by a bite from a white-tailed spider. Picture: Tait Schmaal

Professor Julian White, head of toxicology at Adelaide’s Women’s & Children’s Hospital, says it’s difficult to comment on this particular case based on what he’s read in the media.

But he said there were two crucial points to take into consideration — keeping in mind he personally didn’t have access to the man’s medical records or test results.

“Firstly, the patient is quoted as stating he did not feel or see a bite; this is inconsistent with white tailed spider bite which causes immediate moderate to more severe local pain at the time of the bite,” he said.

“Secondly, there is no commercially available blood or other test for spiderbite.”

Because of those points, based on media reports, he says it doesn’t seem likely that the man’s condition was caused by a spider bite.

White-tailed spider.

Speculation about whether white-tailed spider bites could cause necrotising arachnidism was investigated in a study published in 2003 in the Medical Journal of Australia.

It found no evidence of necrotising arachnidism in 130 confirmed case of white-tailed spider bites.

Lead author Geoff Isbister said cases like these are very emotive and patients don’t like being told it wasn’t a spider.

“It’s all about people wanting to be able to label what they have — much better that a spider did this, rather than ‘we are not sure’,” he said on Wednesday.

The University of Newcastle researcher has previously called for medical practitioners to more thoroughly investigate the causes of necrotic ulcers because they are often misattributed to spiders.

“The medical community is by no means immune to the myth of necrotic arachnidism and is responsible for its persistence by not questioning the evidence or investigating necrotic ulcers in the same way as any other disorder,” he said in an opinion piece published in UK medical journal The Lancet in 2004.

Mr Pareja remains in The Alfred hospital in a serious but stable condition.