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Arapahoe County, CO (KCNC) — A woman in Arapahoe County is undergoing a series of painful rabies shots after being bitten by a bat over the weekend. It happened in her bedroom while she was asleep. Now, Linda and George Prause are warning others about the flying mammals.
Their security camera captured the bat darting out of the Prause home in the Arapahoe Lake subdivision. That was after the bat had already sunk its teeth into Linda.
“I’m still having nightmares about it,” she said.
It was 2 a.m. Sunday. Linda and George were in bed.
“I was in and out of sleep kind of and I felt a sharp prick on my finger,” Linda explained to CBS4 Health Specialist Kathy Walsh.
When Linda woke up a short time later, what she saw terrified her.
“It was flying and I’m like ‘What is that?’ and it just kept flying like underneath the fan and then it landed on the wall. It looked like a scene from Batman. It was just huge!” she said.
George shooed the bat out of the bedroom.
“And then it kind of just flew around upstairs and back downstairs,” he said.
George eventually opened the front door and the bat took off.
“We do, at Tri-County, hope that the bat can be collected,” said Ashley Richter, Communicable Disease Epidemiology Manager, Tri-County Health Department.
That’s to test for rabies. Richter said that without the animal they “prefer to err on the side of caution and treat everyone as though the bat did have rabies.”
As a precaution, the Prauses have both started the series of shots needed to prevent rabies. It’s obvious that Linda was bitten. It’s unclear if George was scratched. The infectious viral disease is almost always fatal for those who are unvaccinated.
Linda has been taking a little ribbing.
“My dog’s name is Bella, so they keep referencing Twilight (the movie). The garlic … and I have a tattoo on my wrist (of a cross) and it didn’t work.”
But the Prauses are sharing their story to warn others.
“It’s not just a scratch or it’s not just a puncture, that rabies can kill you,” said Linda.
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