WARNING CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES: Andrew Hodges suffered a bite on his leg three weeks into a working holiday, which caused him to collapse. It happened in 2018 and he has been unable to travel home
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Andrew Hodges during his battle with the effects of the spider bite (Image: Andrew Hodges / SWNS.COM)
A Brit suffered horrific injuries after being bitten by a spider in Cambodia – which has left him stranded there.
Andrew Hodges, 56, was working in restaurants in the South East Asian country when he was nipped by the arachnid.
He was just three weeks into the working holiday when he suffered a bite on his leg in the middle of the night.
Andrew suffered horrible leg injuries which saw his limb swell to twice its size – and even caused him to hallucinate and collapse.
He woke up in hospital and says doctors there initially wanted to cut his leg off.
Andrew's leg after the spider bite
(Image: Andrew Hodges / SWNS.COM)
Andrew says he was bitten in 2018 but the injuries caused such horrific problems he has been unable to travel home.
Andrew, of Woking Surrey, say he's also now stuck and unable to travel home because of the pandemic.
He said: "I suspect it was a spider bite although I have no recollection of it happening.
Andrew's leg was left swollen to twice its size and caused him to collapse
(Image: Andrew Hodges / SWNS.COM)
"I was acting very strange according to a next door neighbour, and my knee on my right leg was apparently twice the size.
"It wasn't until I collapsed in the street when a passer by found me and offered to take me to hospital.
"i was left on a trolley with no medicine.
"I later received two drips and was laid on a mat on the floor to receive treatment, which is where I became conscious again.
Andrew Hodges' leg today
(Image: Andrew Hodges / SWNS.COM)
"I was given one injection a day, and after the fourth day, I was informed they were going to cut my leg off.
"I wasn't very happy with that idea, especially as I had no inf ormation of what happened or anything else."
He later decided to escape the hospital in the early hours of the morning – with his leg severely damaged.
The hospital in Cambodia where Andrew was treated
(Image: Andrew Hodges / SWNS.COM)
He said: "I got a tuk-tuk, got back to the apartment I was renting, and basically had to treat myself."
Andrew says he managed to get hold of antibiotics along with various other medicine which he found through an internet search.
He said: "It took about eight months for it to heal, even though it's not healed now, the bottom part of the ankle, because the leg exploded in three places – one under the knee, one on the bite, one on the bone of the ankle."
Andrew has been unable to return to the UK for two years
(Image: Andrew Hodges / SWNS.COM)
Andrew's savings have been flushed away from paying for eight months worth of medicine.
He is also in debt from not paying his £200 a month visa due to not being able to walk to immigration.
"I'm stranded anyway because you can't get out of the country because of lockdown" he said.
"Even if I could fly, the main reason is the total costs here from what I paid in medical bills and eight months of medicines, all the money I had saved up slowly has drained away."
He added: "The spider bite destroyed my whole life as I knew it and now I am reduced to poverty and will soon be on the streets of Cambodia."
Andrew is hoping his brothers or other family in Woking will get in touch to help him.
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