A teenager suffered a pus-oozing wound after she was bitten by a spider while relaxing in her bedroom.
Courtney Thompson, 19, was rushed to hospital by her mother after she was attacked by the spider at her family home in Crawley, Sussex.
She was sent home after her leg was dressed, but the tiny bite quickly developed into a a deep gash.
Courtney Thompson, 19, was rushed to hospital by her mother after she was attacked by the spider at her family home in Crawley, Sussex
Stomach-churning footage shows pus oozing from the deep, infected wound as the teen’s dressing is taken off.
Ms Thompson, who suffers from arachnophobia, said: ‘I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock really, and I think I still am.
‘I never knew that we had spiders in the UK that could leave a bite that bad and potentially poison me.
‘The hole was making me feel a bit sick but when I went back to have the first dressing taken off it made me really squirm.
‘The wound is about two centimeters deep and the size of a 50 pence piece.
I create all these gory looks while practicing my SFX make up and they don’t bother me but this was different.
‘At least I have some more inspiration for my SFX now.
Ms Thompson said she felt ‘sick’ when she A&E staff cleaned the wound. Pictured, pus swells up underneath her dressing
‘It really made me feel sick. It doesn’t hurt, but it was painful when they were clearing all the rubbish out of it.
‘I’ve got a high pain threshold and I even had double hip surgery when I was younger and I think this is worse than that.
‘I don’t know where the spider came from.
‘All I can think is that there was a spider in my room a week or so before the mark appeared.
‘I called my mum and asked her to move it as I’m petrified of them but it had disappeared before she got to it.
‘I haven’t been abroad so it was definitely a spider in the UK that has done this.’
Ms Thompson said she is hopeful that her wound (pictured) will just leave a small scar
Ms Thompson has been back to the hospital three times to have the bite cleaned and all the puss removed from it. She is also on antibiotics to help fight the infection.
Her family have been searching the house to make sure that the spider isn’t still lurking in there.
Ms Thompson said: ‘I had a red lump on the bottom of my leg and I thought it was nothing.
‘After a couple of weeks, it started to sink in a bit and as I am a type one diabetic I knew I needed to go and get it looked at.
Courtney Thompson is studying SFX make-up and joked that her gory wound might help inspire her to create
‘I was sent straight to A&E from the doctors and I was told by three nurses and a doctor that I had been bit by a spider and it was infected.
‘My first dressing was a plaster that pulled all of the poison and pus out of the wound.
‘When they pulled that dressing of it was disgusting.
‘They then had to try and pull all the pus out of it, which was very uncomfortable.
‘They gave me another dressing and then I went back four days later and had the wound cleaned and redressed again.
‘Hopefully if I look after it and get it checked regularly it will heal and just leave a small scar.
‘I’m even more petrified of spiders now. I hope if it was the one I saw in my bedroom it has moved on.’