A MAN has lost both of his legs and could have his arms amputated in a Melbourne Hospital after he contracted flesh necrosis, which he was told by his doctor could be related to a “possible spider bite”.

However he has no memory of being bitten by a white-tailed spider, and an expert says it is unlikely such a bite would have caused the necrosis.

Terry Pareja, from the Philippines, was visiting family in Birchip when his foot began swelling.

His brother-in-law Ray Ogleby today told 3AW: “He (could) hardly walk on Saturday and on Sunday (his leg) started to turn black.”

“There’s no doctor service in Birchip on Saturday and Sunday, so he waited until Monday.”

media_camera A white-tailed spider. Picture: CSIRO

The local doctor, who he saw on February 27, send him straight to Horsham hospital, where his right leg was amputated in emergency surgery before he was flown to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne to have his left leg removed.

Mr Ogleby said a toxicology report pointed to a “possible spider bite”.

However University of Newcastle researcher Geoff Isbister has cast doubt on whether a white-tailed spider bite could cause flesh necrosis.

Mr Isbister is the author of a study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia in 2003, addressing speculation about whether white-tailed spider bites could cause necrotising arachnidism.

It found no evidence of necrotising arachnidism in 130 confirmed cases of white-tailed spider bites.

Mr Isbister said flesh necrosis cases were very emotive and patients didn’t like being told it was not a spider.

“It’s all about people wanting to be able to label what they have — much better that a spider did this, rather than ‘we are not sure’,” he AAP today.

The researcher has previously called for medical practitioners to more thoroughly investigate the causes of necrotic ulcers because they are often misattributed to spiders.

“The medical community is by no means immune to the myth of necrotic arachnidism and is responsible for its persistence by not questioning the evidence or investigating necrotic ulcers in the same way as any other disorder,” he said in an opinion piece published in UK medical journal The Lancet in 2004.

Meanwhile, Mr Pareja remains in The Alfred hospital in a serious but stable condition.

His sister said it could be 18 months before he was able to return home.

His daughter Jeffmarey Pareja started a GoFundMe page to help pay medical bills, saying doctors still had not beaten the flesh-eating bacteria.

“My dad went to Australia to visit my aunts and uncle for they have not seen each other for the longest time,” she wrote on the page.

“Now my dad is in ICU having two of his kidneys not working and is aided by kidney support.

“Doctors also discovered that the necrotising fasciitis (flesh eating bacteria) is still there and suggested that they would also amputate … both arms.

“We do not have much and we are not rich. I am knocking on your hearts to help my dad’s medication and hospital bills.”

The page has met $9000 of its $30,000 fundraising target.