Well, here’s something I never thought I’d have to worry about while sleeping: a bat trying to crawl into my mouth. Dr. Krista Edelman, a gastroenterologist in Richmond, Virginia, shared a truly horrifying story on social media (embedded below) after waking up to discover that a bat was attempting to burrow between her lips and into her mouth. Yes, you read that correctly.
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According to CNN, Edelman was sleeping when she initially thought she was dreaming about a mouse trying to get into her mouth. Still half asleep, she reached up and felt something that she described as slimy, hairy and cool. That’s when she realized this was no dream. And it wasn’t a mouse. It was a bat.
“This bat was legitimately trying to burrow between my lips into my mouth,” she said. If you’re wondering how you would react in this situation, Edelman did what I imagine most of us would do: She grabbed the bat, threw it across the room and screamed.
Her husband came running in with a T-ball bat but Edelman, being a physician, knew they shouldn’t kill the animal. Instead, they needed to capture it so it could be tested for rabies. Her husband put on gloves and eventually managed to trap the bat in a bucket. That’s an important part of this story.
I had no idea that bat teeth are extremely small and bites can be difficult to see or even feel. The CDC says that if you wake up in a room with a bat, you should seek medical care because you may not know whether you’ve been bitten or otherwise exposed. That’s scary.
Edelman and her husband went to the emergency room, where they received rabies shots while the bat was sent for testing. Fortunately, the bat tested negative for rabies. Rabies isn’t something to mess around with. Once symptoms appear, the disease is nearly always fatal but post-exposure treatment is highly effective when given before symptoms develop.
Why travelers should know about this
Edelman lives in a nearly 100-year-old home in Richmond and said she’d never previously seen bats inside her house. Her advice was to have an exterminator check attics and chimneys, particularly if you live in an older home.
But this story immediately made me think about travel. I’ve stayed in plenty of old hotels, inns, villas, cottages, cabins and vacation rentals over the years. If you’re staying somewhere and discover a bat in your room, especially after you’ve been sleeping, don’t simply shoo it outside and go back to bed.
The CDC advises seeking medical attention if you wake up in a room with a bat because again bites can be difficult to detect. That’s useful information I honestly never thought I’d need while traveling.
Social media had thoughts
As you might expect, people on social media were simultaneously horrified and hilarious.
@passengershaming: “New fear unlocked. Great. Never sleeping again.”
@kelleesetgo wrote: “This is literally INSANE. The wildest thing I’ve ever heard, that I would never know I’d need to prepare for. 😩😳”
Then there’s @malyndahale, who may have had the funniest response: “I would have stayed in the hospital till they gave me a new mouth.”
And @dalijahamelia suddenly saw the appeal of one of today’s strangest sleep trends: “And that is when I would become a fan of that Mouth Tape everyone wears these days 😂”
@shaynicole.xo found the silver lining: “She’s definitely going to win ‘2 truths and a lie’ ice breaker!”
One commenter had actually experienced something frighteningly similar. @yessfun wrote: “I woke up to a bat in my bedroom last week and now I’m even more freaked out than I already was (don’t worry I got my rabies shots and luckily bat was negative but UGH EW)”
And finally, @Reddy91372 said what many of us were probably thinking: “I wouldn’t even be alive to tell this story.” LOL.
The good news is that the bat tested negative and Edelman is fine. The bad news is that I now have one more completely irrational thing to think about the next time I’m trying to fall asleep in an old hotel or vacation rental.
And for the record, if my wife ever wakes up with something furry trying to crawl into her mouth, I’m pretty sure the entire neighborhood is going to hear her scream.
