A WOMAN said she has suffered 18 months of ‘constant pain’ and been left virtually immobile since being bitten by a mystery insect. 


Mother-of-four Tracey Bortoft, 39, said a series of medics had told her they had ‘never seen anything like’ her condition before.


She said her last hope was a full consultation with a specialist at the Liverpool based University Hospital for Tropical Medicine and Insect Bites, to see if they had seen something similar.

But she has been left devastated after her GP said his referral was refused as the unit only sees patients bitten overseas and not in the UK.


Mrs Bortoft said she had been was enjoying a meal in a Liverpool city centre restaurant with her husband Brett when she was bitten on her right calf by an unidentified insect in May 2015.

Within minutes a lump appeared on her leg and she began to feel ill.


The couple immediately returned to Blackburn and visited A&E where Mrs Bortoft’s condition deteriorated rapidly and she was admitted for 11 days after the her leg became infected.

The bite and subsequent infection has left her leg disfigured and she said she was in constant pain.


In the past 18 months the once ‘very active’ former pub licensee has been almost immobilised.

She has since developed lymphodema and fibromuscular dysplasia in her leg and is only able to walk short distances with the aid of a stick.


She uses a mobility scooter to pick up her children from school and admits she ‘hides away’ and ‘does not like to go out’.

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Mrs Bortoft, who is mum to three boys and a girl aged between four and 21, said: “From the day after this happened I’ve wished every day that my leg had been amputated.

"I knew I’d been bitten immediately. There were two puncture holes about a centimetre apart. It looked like a snakebite.

“After I was discharged from hospital, the nurses at Barbara Castle Medical Centre and my GP at the St George’s Medical Centre have been brilliant in caring for me but nobody has been able to improve the problem.

“My conditions have also affected my mental health, I have short term memory loss and am seeing a ‎psychiatrist. I used to love taking the children to Witton Park to play but now I can’t run or be active.

“The biggest thing for me is not being able to bathe my little one. My life’s been transformed by this, I don’t socialise and hardly go out more.

“The only thing that keeps me going is the love and support of my children and the rest of my family.”


Mr Bortoft, 34, said the couple, of Highercroft, had hoped for a referral to see an expert in Liverpool.

He said: “After numerous phone calls to the hospital practically begging them to see her privately to try to get my wife her life back I was told they only work on GP referral and they could not act until this was so.

“Eighteen months of tests and prodding and poking have passed by, and, the GP finally agreed all avenues have been exhausted and he writes the referral.

"We were over the moon, only to be knocked back down to earth with a letter refusing treatment.”


A spokesperson for the Trust said: “Mrs Bortoft was triaged at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s NHS clinic by one of our consultants. She was already 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 readily treated at her local hospital, closer to her home. This information was relayed to her GP. We understand Mrs Bortoft’s distress and wish her a speedy recovery.”