A grandmother-of-thirteen was forced to have both her legs amputated after she was bit by an insect in her garden
Josie Rowley, 69, was in her garden tending to her plants in September last year when she says an insect bit her on her left leg.
The avid gardener, from Bantry Bay, Cork, Ireland, noticed two red marks on her leg when getting ready for bed but thought nothing of the ‘mosquito bite’-sized punctures. But days later the bite marks turned into ‘gruesome’ ulcers.
After two courses of unsuccessful antibiotics, she was referred to hospital where she was given compression bands and tried three rounds of leech therapy to tackle the infection.
The compression wraps slowed down her circulation so much her toes turned black, leaving doctors forced to amputate both legs above the knee.
Ms Rowley was left devastated by the incident and is shocked something as small as an insect bite has caused this much damage.
‘I’m not too sure what bit me because it was only when I was getting ready for bed that I noticed two little round red marks on my lower left leg,’ she said.
‘I just thought maybe an ant had crawled up my jeans or some creature.
‘The next day they had got a lot bigger and over days they became sore and then turned into these gruesome ulcers and that is when I had the compression bandages put on.
‘The bites at first were not even a millimetre, they were like a little mosquito bite.’
However, after a nurse put compression bandages on her circulation was not sufficient enough to heal the wounds and her toes started to go black.
‘Their [the hospital] resolution was to amputate above the knee and this is what happened in the end,’ Ms Rowley said.
‘We did try other alternatives [before then] and even tried leech therapy, which wasn’t the most pleasant.
‘I was devastated because surely this hasn’t all come about from a couple of insect bites? It was crazy, I’ve been gardening for years and years.
‘I did have an underlying health condition of arthritis which didn’t help either in my hands and ankles.
‘When I lost my first leg I was so calm when I came out of theatre but 10 days later they removed the other leg.
‘With one amputation you can still manoeuvre a little bit but when they took off the other leg that was a different story.
‘It does seem incredible [that an insect bite caused this]. I have been bitten so many times over the years and lived in foreign countries where the insects there are worse.
‘You just don’t think this is going to happen in your own garden.
‘I’ve just had to adjust. There are so many things now that I think I can just do but I can’t now.’
Insect bites and stings are not usually serious and most of the time they get better in a few days.
But in some cases they can become infected or cause serious allergic reactions, the NHS warns.
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