A Palmerston North man was left fighting for his life after being bitten by a suspected white-tailed spider.
Andy Stewart didn't think much of the bite he felt while on a motorcycle trip in the South Island, but he ended up in hospital for a month battling a bacterial infection.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Stewart said he knew he'd been bitten while riding but had "no idea how much trouble" he was in.
He said after arriving back from his trip, days later, he decided to go to the hospital after he couldn't walk properly the day before.
"We called an ambulance but again, I didn't realise how much trouble I was in until my my doctors told me I was lucky to be here."
He said his lungs, liver, and kidney were all "in the firing line".
"It was a reality check, something I hadn't experienced before and never want to experience again."
The bite itself was unlikely to have caused Stewart's symptoms, but it allowed bacteria on his skin to spread around his body.
Stewart said his message to anyone else who gets bitten is to go to the hospital immediately.
He said if he had gone to hospital earlier, the doctors could've intervened and possibly stopped the bacteria from spreading though his body.
"You just don't think, I'm a bit of a workaholic and I just go for it all the time and I didn't think of the consequences, but when you have four weeks to think about it you do realise."
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