Spider bite left Dalkeith father at risk of blood poisoning

Bank worker Tony Folan needed urgent medical attention after the bite

Tony Folan, 35, from Dalkeith, was attacked by the creature - with doctors warning he could have developed potentially fatal blood poisoning if he hadn’t been treated.

Mr Folan turned up to work at Scottish Widows the next day, only to be sent home by colleagues.

After his arm remained red and painful, Mr Folan rushed to see his GP at New Byres Medical Practice.

Speaking to a national newspaper, he said: “I was sweating profusely and shivering as the infection took hold.

“When I got to the doctors they said that if I’d left it for two days, it potentially could have turned into septicaemia and I could’ve been on an IV drip.”

Mr Folan attempted to cage the beast after the vicious attack, but the spider scuttled away and is still on the loose.

He added: “I never expected to get bitten by a spider in Scotland, at this time of year as well. But it was big, it was massive - the size of my fist.

“I’ve seen them before, the big ones with the wee skinny bodies, but I wasn’t paying that much attention to it.

“It wasn’t like a black widow or anything like that, but it was huge.”

Mr Folan was sorting out his bike in his garage as he prepares he take up cycling again.

But when he went to pick up his tyre pump, he noticed the spider and attempted to batter it out of the way. But the creature jumped onto Mr Folan’s arm and took a bite.

He said: “I didn’t think anything of it and then at work somebody asked what was wrong with my arm.

My arm was all red and there was a big red line along it. I went to the doctor and they put me on antibiotics and I’m still on them now. It has gone down ever so slightly now.”

Mr Folan pretended to be Spiderman in order to put his five-year-old son Theo at ease after the scary incident.

He added: “My son was quite scared but I was able to turn it round to a positive and told him I might get spidey powers like Spiderman.

“I had to get up against a wall in the house to show him, just to take away his worries, and slid down. But I must admit I did think to myself, ‘you never know what could have happened’.”

A total of 12 species of spider in the UK are able to cause harm to a human from the venom in their bite - although all 650 varieties of the creature are able to bite.

In 2014, a student at Edinburgh Napier University was forced to spend a night in hospital after being bitten by a spider during her first week in the Capital.

Bronwyn Gray, who was 18 at the time, woke up with a small spot on her right arm after spending one of her first nights in her new halls of residence.

She then developed a cough and initially thought she had picked up a bout of ‘student flu’ - but the spot started growing.

Red lines started spreading from the bite and she went to a chemist who gave her antiseptic.