May 17, 2006

How Our Bat Story Could Have Ended

Over the weekend, I was horrified to read about a 16 year old boy in Houston who died of rabies after being bitten by a bat. My heart goes out to that family of Zachary Jones. I can’t imagine the pain of burying your child.

The story brings home the gravity of the situation last November when Caleb was bitten by a bat. Our story could have easily ended in the same tragic way.

Thankfully, we caught the bat and kept it. I’m so glad Tiffany had the foresight to do this. The family of the boy in Houston caught their bat too, but then they threw it out the window. In Caleb’s case he was walking around with a bat in his shoe for several minutes, so we knew there was a great possibility of him being bitten. In Houston, the bat flew into Zachary Jones’ bedroom and he felt it brush against his face. In both Zachary’s and Caleb’s case, there were no visible signs of a bat bite.

Even though our bat thankfully tested negative for rabies it was almost never tested. When Caleb was bitten, we immediately took Caleb and the bat to Cook’s Children Hospital here in Fort Worth, where they did not know what to do and did not think Caleb was actually bitten since there were no visible marks. We took it upon ourselves the next morning to get a second opinion and make sure the bat was tested. Our second opinion was with the Infectious Disease Clinic where they immediately had a team meeting to discuss Caleb’s situation and they called us back to recommend we start the rabies vaccination immediately.

Tiffany’s mom, Aleta Smithson, works for a company that inspects hospitals and teaches hospital staff members about how to lower their hospital’s law suits risks. She writes for a newsletter called “Risk Management Review.” Her April 2006 column featured Caleb’s story about being bitten by a bat. You can download the Word Doc version if you are interested in reading more.

We’re obviously thankful our story turned out the way it did, but we’re saddened for the Houston family.