A Richmond, Virginia doctor had to begin emergency rabies treatment after waking up to find a bat trying to crawl into her mouth in the middle of the night.
What Happened
Dr. Krista Edelman, a Richmond gastroenterologist, was asleep beside her husband around 6 a.m. on August 20 when she dreamed something small was trying to get into her mouth. She reached up, felt something soft and hairy, and pulled out a bat that appeared to be trying to burrow between her lips, then threw it across the room.
Why She Needed Treatment
Because Edelman had direct contact with the bat and had not previously been vaccinated against rabies, she went to the emergency room, where she began the rabies vaccine series and received rabies immunoglobulin. The bat itself later tested negative for rabies, but doctors said the exposure still warranted treatment given how difficult bat bites can be to detect.
Why Experts Say This Matters
Contact with infected bats is the leading cause of human rabies deaths in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in part because bat bites can be so small they leave no visible mark, meaning someone who wakes up to find a bat in their room may not be able to tell whether they were bitten while asleep.
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