Woman’s raccoon attack injuries are just the beginning, warns listener

A woman was attacked by a pack of raccoons Monday
while walking her dog. She was left with nearly 100
wounds.

While the attack sounds horrendous, Ross & Burbank
listener Laura from Kingston says it is just the beginning
of her stressful situation because you won’t believe the
price of rabies shots.

Laura found out how much a chance rabies encounter costs,
literally, when she woke up to what she thought was a
large moth flying over her head. It wasn’t, it was a bat.
Laura says she learned that she was at high risk for
rabies since they didn’t know where the bat had been while
they were sleeping. Her whole family needed shots.

“Immune globulin, the shot you get before you get the rabies
shots, that makes them work; that part is outrageously
expensive.” Her doctor and the health department told
Laura that her family needed to get the shots from an
Emergency Room.

She called the ER ahead of time to ask them if they’d have
the immune goblin that they needed. They said yes, but to
her surprise when the family showed up the ER didn’t have
the shots, nor did they believe they needed them.

And then the bill came. It was $35,000 for the three
initial shots.

When they’re done receiving each round of rabies shots,
the bills are expected to be more than $50,000. While the
insurance company will cover some, Laura has learned the
family will still have to pay $19,000.

If she had to do it all over again, would she have taken
the chance that the bat in their house didn’t have rabies?
“No. I have a daughter.”