{"id":40992,"date":"2025-08-02T04:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T04:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/40992\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T04:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T04:16:08","slug":"bat-flies-into-womans-mouth-in-arizona-costing-her-nearly-21000-in-medical-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/40992\/","title":{"rendered":"Bat flies into woman’s mouth in Arizona, costing her nearly $21,000 in medical bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Massachusetts woman was bitten by nearly $21,000 in medical bills after a bat flew <\/a>into her mouth during a freak incident while vacationing in Northern Arizona, the unlucky traveler said Friday. <\/p>\n

Erica Kahn, now 33, had recently lost her job as a biomedical engineer when she traveled to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in last August, she told NBC News.<\/p>\n

Kahn, whose woman-vs.-animal story was first reported Thursday by KFF News<\/a>, was snapping pictures of the night sky when a bat approached and got caught in between her camera and face.<\/p>\n

Then a part of the bat got into her mouth.<\/p>\n

“It was kind of dark out and we were out on a cliff, so I was looking down and at my camera, I didn’t really see it coming,” she said Friday.<\/p>\n

“When it got kind of tangled between my face and the camera, it was probably just like a few seconds. But it felt like a lot longer.” <\/p>\n

While there are highly effective drugs for rabies, it can be fatal if not treated before symptoms are felt. <\/p>\n

At the urging of her travel partner and father, a doctor, the symptom-less Kahn sought care for rabies \u2014 but only after jumping online to buy new medical insurance. <\/p>\n

After Kahn lost her job, she declined to pay for her former employer\u2019s insurance for $650 a month through COBRA, the federal continuation of health coverage law<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The unemployed Massachusetts woman figured she could roll the dice as a healthy woman in her early 30s or at worst, could hastily buy private health insurance in a pinch, Kahn said.<\/p>\n

Kahn went online, bought a policy and then went to get rabies vaccinations and treatment in Arizona, Colorado and Massachusetts, believing she was in the clear.<\/p>\n

\"TadaridaThe Mexican free-tailed bat, or Brazilian free-tailed bat, is a bat common to Arizona and known to reside in Glen Canyon Recreation Area.Poetra RH \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Then the bills started pouring in, asking for a total of $20,749, because her policy had a 30-day waiting period before she could receive treatments covered by the plan, she said.<\/p>\n

“I felt so powerless against these companies,” she said. “It should be a human right to have lifesaving care covered. In most other countries, like in Europe, you just go to the hospital, you get your rabies vaccines and you pay nothing.”<\/p>\n

Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University, said most plans kick in on the first of the month after enrollment. It’s generally not instantaneous.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe insurance companies \u2014 for good reason \u2014 don\u2019t want people to wait to sign up for coverage until they are sick,\u201d Corlette told KFF.<\/p>\n

Kahn is now employed again and has health insurance, she’s burdened by the bills.<\/p>\n

Kahn said looking back, she should have secured private health insurance as soon as she was laid off.<\/p>\n

“I should have done COBRA, even though it was very expensive,” Kahn said. “But yeah, hindsight is 20\/20.” <\/p>\n

The near-$21,000 burden will probably lead to fewer vacations and a delay in having central air conditioning installed at her place, Kahn said.<\/p>\n

She said she hopes others can learn from her misstep.<\/p>\n

“It was my fault. I took the risk of not doing COBRA and that’s forever on me,” she said. “But if one person gets covered because they saw this story, then I would be happy about that.” <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>David K. Li<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Senior Breaking News Reporter<\/p>\n

Toby Lyles and Aria Bendix contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Massachusetts woman was bitten by nearly $21,000 in medical bills after a bat flew into her mouth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-40992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}