[chadaustin]

Last Christmas, we got a tree from a local farm in the mountains. We had the tree trimmed and decorated before we discovered a sleeping (hibernating?) bat on the inside.

We got it moved outside, but it took about 24 hours before I realized that I should call County Health. By that point, the bat was gone, and county health suggested I receive rabies treatment, but call my doctor. The bat could have bit or scratched without us realizing it.

The doctor concurred. Rabies treatment must be done at the ER. They strongly recommended everyone in the house receive treatment if we could not 100% rule out physical contact. (We couldn't.)

Me, my wife, my kids, EACH receiving the immunoglobulin and four rounds of vaccines at the ER. We ran the first ER out of the treatment so the kids had to go somewhere else. Also, those are big needles.

The treatment ended up billing insurance over $100,000. (Almost all of that is the immunoglobulin.) We also had to return to both ERs, three times each, with the last time being on Christmas morning.

There is research that says immunoglobulin is _likely_ not necessary if you have no visible bites, but it's current health policy in the USA, and no doctor wants to be the first to undertreat.

Most expensive Christmas tree ever.

[justinclift]

> The treatment ended up billing insurance over $100,000.

Yep, that definitely confirms you're in the US. ;)

[unsupp0rted]

I had the same treatment in South Korea a few years ago, including immunoglobulin. It cost about $4,000 or so

[PartiallyTyped]

US absurdities aside, I find it ridiculous that people need to pay for something that will save their life.

[serjester]

Even in South Korea it doesn’t exactly sound cheap - I really wonder what makes a 150 year old, mass produced vaccine so expensive. Haven’t we figured out how to produce it cheaply.

[not_a_bot_4sho]

Omg that's an expensive Christmas. Glad to hear everyone was alright, but that cost is insane.

[testfoobar]

I'm sorry for you and your family. This is a catastrophic thinker's literal nightmare.

[plagiarist]

Hopefully your insurance covered a lot of that $100,000. That's astronomical.

[edm0nd]

How much did your insurance cover and how much did you have to pay out of pocket?

[zabzonk]

> Most expensive Christmas tree ever

Would have been even more expensive if the USA had UK laws- in the UK disturbing bats is an offence.

Also, unless you really think you need it (just finding a bat is not enough), you don't want to take rabies vaccine. But IANAMD.

[mynameishere]

I've walked through swarms of bats without a care in the world. You came within ten feet of a sleeping bat and put your family through a medical grinder. Different strokes.

[nfinished]

Weird flex in the comments on an article about someone who interacted with a bat, didn't get treated, then died.