Pensioner’s gratitude to Larbert NHS staff for tick bite cure

A deer tick photographed under a microscope.

Ian Stein (77) told the Daily Record he had been bitten by ticks before and thought little about it, but this time there was no improvement after a week.

Things then started to get worse very quickly, and his leg became swollen and hot.

He told the newspaper he called NHS 24 and was persuaded to go to the Larbert hospital, where after an assessment he was immediately put on a drip.

The treatment he received was “immediate and effective”, he said.

Mr Stein said: “If I hadn’t gone to hospital that evening I don’t like to think what would’ve happened.”

He thinks he picked up the deer tick at the family home in Argyll, which is visited by roe deer.

Now he is urging people of any age to seek prompt medical attention if anything similar happens, bearing in mind that in his case the infection caused by the tick only started to get a grip after a week.

Mr Stein added: “I consider myself lucky.”