Redback Spider
Approximately 2,000 people are bitten each year by redback spiders in Australia Reuters / Tim Wimborne

An Australian man has been taken to hospital after being bitten by a deadly redback spider on his penis while he was sitting on a toilet. The 21-year-old trader from Sydney was using a portable toilet outside a building when the spider bit him. Though paramedics were called to help, he managed to find his way to the hospital on his own for treatment.

He was later discharged from the hospital in stable condition, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Approximately 2,000 people are bitten each year by redback spiders in Australia. The bites are usually red and remain itchy for several days, with severe pain and nausea.

Associate professor Julian White, Australia's leading expert on redbacks, said: "Going back 80 years or so when people were still using outhouse toilets it was extremely common, something like up to 80% of the cases of spider bites were bites on the male genitalia.

"A bite from a redback is certainly going to make the patient very miserable."

Although deaths due to redback bites are very rare now since the anti-venom was developed in 1956, a 22-year-old man from Sydney died on 12 April, 2016 because of complications following a spider bite.