Erica Kahn, 33, was outside the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona in August last year, taking pictures of the sky, when she noticed several bats flying around
A tourist has been forced to shell out more than £15,000 in medical bills after a wild bat bizarrely flew into her mouth on holiday.
Erica Kahn, 33, was outside the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona in August last year, taking pictures of the sky, when she noticed several bats flying around. The former biomedical engineer carried on her photography but soon stopped when a bat became trapped between her camera and face.
The tourist immediately screamed in horror, and a part of the bat ended up in her mouth for a few seconds. Her doctor dad, who had been with her on the trip, advised his daughter to start a course of rabies treatment immediately – even though she wasn’t sure if she had been bitten.
Erica took her dad’s advice and went online to buy a medical insurance plan before going to a hospital to start treatment. She believed it would cover her two-week course of rabies injections, which she had at clinics in Flagstaff, Colorado, Arizona, and Massachusetts. It comes after a girl, 8, was savaged by a dog outside her nan’s house after she tried to shoo it away.
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However, she was stunned when her bill arrived, which showed she owed about £15,000 between the four treatment facilities. She had four doses of the rabies vaccines and three shots of three shots of immunoglobulin to increase antibodies against the virus, which can be fatal if left untreated.
The tourist admitted she had no idea the insurance plan she purchased required a 30-day waiting period before she would be covered. “I thought it must have been a mistake,” she told local media. “I guess I was naive.”
The holidaymaker had been laid off from her job the previous month, and decided against keeping her £500 a month insurance. Instead, she would wait until she had a new job to get health insurance. However, she had no idea she would face an unexpected medical emergency.
She plans to keep appealing the bill’s payment denials and has successfully negotiated some of the treatment down—but she still owes thousands of pounds.
Despite the horrific incident, it hasn’t put her off her love of the great outdoors.
“I know what bats taste like now. It’s an earthy, sweet kind of flavour,” she joked KFF. “It’s actually a pretty funny story — if it weren’t for the horrible medical bill that came with it.”
According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, around 4,000 rabies cases are reported each year in the US. Fewer than ten people die of the virus each year.
It is estimated that more than 90% of rabies cases occur in skunks, foxes, raccoons, and bats.