RICHMOND, Va. — A young Richmond couple was astonished by medical bills listing more than $40,000 in charges for potential exposure to rabies after a small bat flew into their recently purchased home near Byrd Park.
Even worse, they thought the potentially lifesaving rabies shot would only cost them $500 each.
“We woke up at 1 a.m. and Shannan says, ‘there’s something in the bed,’” Dave Goodman, who described the creature as barely moving despite having made its way under their sheets, said.
Goodman easily trapped the bat in a pot and set it outside. The couple had no obvious bite wounds, so they went back to bed.
A friend later convinced them to seek medical care because rabies is 100 percent fatal in humans and bats are the most frequently reported rapid wildlife species.
Goodman’s girlfriend, Shannan Fitzgerald, called her primary care doctor and was told only an emergency room would be able to provide a critical rabies immune globulin shot to stop the virus from spreading.