Woman Learns Hard Way: Keep Your Mouth Shut on Vacation, Unless You Want a Bat and a $20K Medical Bill

justmindy | 8:30 PM on August 03, 2025

There is a line that goes something like 'even a fish would get in less trouble if it kept its mouth closed' and a woman on vacation learned that lesson all too well. Buckle up because this one will make you not want to leave your house.

Massachusetts woman hit with five-figure medical bill after a wild bat flew into her mouth on vacation https://t.co/V1wAFRY1Fv pic.twitter.com/0w4H32xh6b
— New York Post (@nypost) August 3, 2025

A woman on vacation whose employee-sponsored health plan had lapsed after recently being being laid off wound up with over $20,000 in medical bills after a bat flew into her mouth.
Erica Kahn, 33, was visiting Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona last August when the horror encounter with the winged mammal took place.
The former biomedical engineer noticed a number of bats flying around while she was outside taking pictures of the night sky, but didn’t think much of it.
That is, until one got too close for comfort, winding up trapped between her camera and face.

When she screamed in terror, an unknown part of the bat wound up in her mouth for a few seconds.
Her father, a physician who had been traveling with her, said she should immediately start a course of rabies treatments, even though she wasn’t sure if she had been bitten.
She quickly went online to purchase a medical insurance plan before going to a hospital in Flagstaff to begin treatments — under the impression it would cover her two-week course of rabies shots, which she received at clinics in Arizona, Massachusetts and Colorado, KFF reported.
But her biggest shock of all came when the bill arrived, showing she owed $20,749 between the four facilities — for treatment including four doses of the rabies vaccines and three shots of immunoglobulin to increase antibodies against the virus, which is fatal if left untreated.
She didn’t realize the insurance plan she had purchased a day before starting treatment required a 30-day waiting period before coverage would kick in, an explanation-of-benefits letter she got in the mail grimly explained.
“I thought it must have been a mistake,” she told the outlet. “I guess I was naive.”