Mum claims mystery insect bite has left her housebound and unable to walk for nearly two YEARS
Tracey Bortoft, 39, was enjoying a day out in Liverpool in May last year when the full-time mum discovered two tiny puncture wounds on her right calf
A WOMAN has been left unable to walk for nearly two years and is housebound after she was bitten by a mystery insect.
Tracey Bortoft was on a day out in Liverpool last year when she found two tiny puncture wounds on her right calf.
Within 10 minutes of noticing the bites she was rushed to hospital in agony as her leg swelled.
A year-and-a-half on and she says she is still housebound, with doctors still unable to work out what insect caused the problem.
Tracey, from Blackburn, Lancs, said: "It's had a devastating impact on my life. I can hardly walk, and if I put it down on the floor I can suffer with shooting pains for the whole day.
"There's no time for a family home life now. I stay inside all day.
"I used to be very sociable, now I don't like going out. My husband bought me a mobility scooter, but I hate going out with it.
"I'm 39, I shouldn't need to use one.
"I feel embarrassed. I've arranged with the school to pick my kids up from the office so I don't have to go into the yard and see the other parents.
"The kids have gotten used to it, but they still ask me why I can't do things with them, why I can't play football with them. They ask 'Why can't they make me better?'"
After she was taken to hospital, she did not leave the Royal Blackburn Hospital for 11 days, as the bite became a sore and then developed into a huge blister.
She said her blisters and angry red skin only started to subside five and a half weeks after she was first admitted to hospital and said more than a year and a half later she is housebound and cannot walk without agonising shooting pains in her leg.
Tracey has also been diagnosed with pain condition fibromyalgia and fluid retention illness lymphedema and suffers from short term memory loss and fatigue.
The once out-going mum to a 21-year-old daughter and three sons aged four, six and 11, said: "The bite didn't hurt straight away, but it looked like two little puncture wounds, almost like a snake bite.
"Within minutes I started to go downhill and feel nauseous.
"My family told me I looked like death. We stopped at a pharmacy on the way to get some antihistamines, and I slept on the way home.
"Then it started to get painful. I was feeling sick, and it was agony to put my foot down.
"This was only about an hour after the bite.
"By the time I got to hospital the pain was worse than childbirth.
"I was in agony and my heart was going way too fast. I was screaming at the doctors to get off when they touched me because it was so bad.
"As the wound progressed, it looked like a huge burn. I was in so much pain."
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Since being discharged from hospital Tracey claims she has tried desperately to obtain a consultation with an expert at Liverpool's School of Tropical Medicine – but alleges she was told in a letter from her GP the centre would only see patients bitten abroad.
The letter from her GP, St George's Surgery in Haslingden, states "further to my referral for you to the School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool, we received a call from them to inform us that they only see patients who have been bitten by insects abroad and therefore they would not be able to see you as you were bitten in this country".
The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the NHS clinic at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, have denied they refused to see Tracey on these grounds.
Tracey's husband Brett is convinced whatever bit his wife was not a bug from the UK.
He said: "We just want answers on what bit Tracey. Whatever bit her is not from the UK, it's from abroad. I don't know whether it might have come in from the docks."
Tracey added: "We just want another opinion, for a specialist to see us for even just five minutes to put our minds at rest.
"I think it was definitely something from abroad that bit me.
"We're hoping that somebody out there will see the pictures and know what it is. We need answers and closure.
"The longer it goes on, the harder it gets."
A spokesman for Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Mrs Bortoft was referred to the NHS Tropical clinic at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine where her case wsa reviewed by one of our consultants.
"She had already been under the care of another consultant and as her condition was not related to a tropical illness, she would not have benefitted from our specialist advice.
"Mrs Bortoft's condition can be treated at her local hospital, closer to her home.
"This information was relayed to her GP. We would not refuse to see any patient simply because they had not been bitten or stung overseas if we felt that our tropical expertise could be beneficial.
"We understand Mrs Bortoft's distress and we wish her a speedy recovery."
A spokesman for St George's Surgery said: "We received a phone call from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine informing us that as the patient had been bitten whilst in this country, they would be unable to see her and this was followed up by an email which stated "as the above patient was bitten in the UK, the consultant advised that it would not be appropriate for her to be seen here".
"We then wrote to the patient informing her of this.
"The care of our patient remains our paramount concern and she is currently under the lymphedema clinic for treatment."
A spokesman for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Blackburn Hospital, said they would shortly meet with Tracey to share their findings.
The spokesman added: "Mrs Bortoft's care has been reviewed and we are confident that the medical staff at the Royal Blackburn Hospital undertook the appropriate tests and provided the correct treatment and medication at that time."
In another mysterious bug bite, Kirsty Keep was bitten by an unknown insect 11 years ago and her mum released a video of her daughter as she pleads with her to let her die.
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