Bat flies into tourist's mouth during Arizona night sky photography trip
A Massachusetts woman had a scary encounter while traveling to Arizona to visit her father.
Erica Kahn was in Northern Arizona with her dad last August to take their annual pictures of the sky.
"We like to take photos of the night sky and the stars, and it's something we've been doing for the past 10 years now, but this was the first time this incident occurred," said Kahn to FOX 10.
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While snapping photos, she said a bat flew directly into her mouth.
"I don't know what part of the bat went into my mouth," she said. "Maybe the wing, the head."
"I had my strap around my camera around my head so that it wouldn't fall down, and because of that, it kind of got trapped between my mouth and the camera," said Kahn.
Arizona is home to 28 species of bats that assemble in areas near lights, agricultural or playing fields, ponds or other water sources, according to the Arizona Game & Fish Department (AGF).
Kahn knew she needed to be checked for rabies immediately — and was shocked to learn that her treatment was not covered, she said.
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Since she'd lost her job, she took out a new health plan with an insurance firm.
"They kind of lied to me on the phone when I said, ‘I need to go to the emergency room … tomorrow. Is this gonna be effective? Is this gonna cover [me] if I need rabies shots?’ And [the person] said, ‘Yes, yes, it's gonna cover it. You're good to go,’" Kahn said.
Kahn was unaware of a 30-day waiting period for coverage to kick in — which left her with a bill of over $20,000.
Fox News Digital reached out to the insurance firm for comment.
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"Our healthcare system is so broken and that's why I'm kind of happy to take these interviews," Kahn told FOX 10.
She added, "I want to shine a light that this should not be the cost of getting a life-saving rabies vaccine."
The leading cause of human rabies death is contact with infected bats, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC).
Seven out of 10 people who die from rabies were infected by bats, according to the CDC.
In 2019, a 21-year-old man died from being scratched by a bat in Canada.