Two Newtown Families Go To Bat Against Rabies

By Nancy K. Crevier

Batman is big again this summer, swooping across the movie screen to scoop up bad guys and put an end to evil in Gotham City. But for Newtown residents JoAnne and Phil Keane, and Sarah and Philip Cappelli, the image of a bat whisking above their heads brings on more shuddering than when the Joker spots The Caped Crusader.

For both of these families and their children, bat visitations to their homes created more than just the chaos of hunting down and disposing of the winged mammals. All of them have had to undergo a long, expensive series of rabies shots, even though none of them believe they were bitten or came in contact with the bats.

The fear, of course, with any wild mammal outside of its natural environment is that it may carry rabies. Rabies, as described by the Connecticut Department of Public Health, is “a viral disease affecting the central nervous system. It is transmitted from infected mammals to man and is invariably fatal once symptoms appear.” Immediate treatment is crucial when rabies exposure is suspected. By the time symptoms appear, anywhere from weeks to up to a year, it is too late to treat the deadly virus.

The decision to treat or not treat is up to the physician and patient, says Pat Mshar, an epidemiologist with the state Department of Public Health. “We provide information based on high or low risk,” she states, adding that national guidelines recommend that treatment should be considered unless a person can be absolutely sure that they have not had contact with the bat.

“Bites aren’t always noticed,” says Ms Mshar, especially if you’ve been sleeping and awaken to find a bat in your room. A puncture wound from the little brown bat, one of the most common in Connecticut, can be extremely difficult to detect.

“The chances are slim it even touched us,” says Ms Keane, “but because a tiny little scratch or saliva could be on you — you don’t know….”

The Keanes’ bat adventure began the morning of July 29 when the Keanes’ 6-year-old son, Tiernan, saw a bat flapping about the upstairs hallway as he climbed out of bed. Mr Keane thought of it only as a nuisance at that point, and cut short his phone conversation with his wife, who was already at work, to net the creature and get it out of the house.

“Phil caught the bat in a net and released it. We could’ve had it tested if we had known not to do that,” Ms Keane continues.

What she found out while her husband was ridding their home of the unwelcome visitor is that new health regulations in Connecticut recommend that people who may have come in contact with a bat to receive five rounds of shots spread out over several weeks.

Haley, 14, Madeline, 11, and their little brother Tiernan have “all been good sports,” according to the Keanes.

“The first day, day zero, everybody got a bunch of shots,” Ms Keane explains. “They call it a ‘bouquet,’ and how many you get depends on your size and weight. Then on days 3, 7, 14, and 28 you get one single shot.”

The shots are not really painful, she goes on, but are uncomfortable and it has been an inconvenience to have to take everyone to the emergency room of Danbury Hospital each time for the injections. Rabies serum is not generally stocked in a physician’s office and needs to be specially ordered. Because the Keanes have several family doctors between them, it was less complicated for all of them to go to the hospital for treatment.

Nor are the shots inexpensive. Mr Keane estimates the cost for his family to receive inoculations against rabies will be in the thousands, which they hope their insurance will cover. The upside, he jokes, is that they can play with all the rabid raccoons they want for the next two years.

Sarah and Philip Cappelli encountered a similar situation as that of the Keanes in mid-June of this year. “We got up early, checking on the kids [Katie, 6, Nicholas, 4, and Philip, 11 months],” says Ms Cappelli. “We always keep a light on in the hall and sleep with the bedroom doors open. I noticed a great big ‘bug’ in the corner of the hallway. That’s what it looked like at first.”

On closer inspection, however, the Cappellis realized that it was a small bat sleeping snugly in the corner. All the Cappellis were thinking of in the wee hours of the morning was getting the bat out and going back to sleep. “We called the police department and they very nicely sent over an officer at 5 am. He covered his arm and grabbed it off the wall, showed it to all of us, released it, and drove away. We were just happy to have it gone.”

It was not until later in the day that Ms Cappelli, sharing the tale with friends and family, became concerned. “It was a 50/50 opinion,” she says, of the advice offered. Fifty percent of them said that if there was even a remote chance of the bat being rabid they must take the treatment. It was not the reaction she had expected, and with new doubts in her mind, she called her pediatrician. His advice was that the family should undergo the shots.

“It was in the very brightest section of the house,” says Ms Cappelli. “That made us wonder how well the bat was. I thought they liked dark places.”

Like the Keanes, the Cappellis had to make a trek to the Danbury Hospital emergency room that evening to receive their initial round of injections. “It was miserable,” Ms Cappelli recalls. After a five-hour wait, Mr Cappelli’s “bouquet” consisted of seven injections, Ms Cappelli received five, Katie had three, and each of their sons needed two injections. The shots were uncomfortable, pinching and bruising their arms, but definitely an improvement over the series of shots administered years ago.

“It used to be 30 days of shots in the stomach. That might have changed my mind!” Ms Cappelli exclaims.

She does regret that there was not a better way to handle the incident. “It wasn’t an ‘emergency.’ We were in there [the emergency room] with all these hurt people, bleeding people. Of course we had to wait five hours, but I didn’t know where else to go.”

Luckily, the Cappellis’ family doctor was willing to give the family the next four rounds of shots, provided they picked up the vaccine and brought it to the office.

Ms Cappelli adds, “Maybe if we were just a married couple we would have taken a different route. But with kids…. Better safe, than sorry.”

If a bat makes itself to home in your house and you suspect you may have had any kind of exposure to it, Ms Mshar recommends that you capture the bat for rabies testing. Always wear gloves, she warns. If possible, put a can over the bat and contain it. Then call the local animal control officer.

“You can’t tell by looking at it [if it has rabies],” says Ms Mshar. Once symptoms occur (irritability, headache, fever, itching or pain at bite site, throat muscle spasms, delirium) it is too late to begin the series of vaccine. “You always want to be evaluated as quickly as possible,” she emphasizes.

Rabies in humans may not be an everyday occurrence, but it is a serious matter. So, if the bat in your belfry is anything other than a good-looking guy in tights and a mask, call your family doctor, or call the Connecticut Department of Public Health epidemiology department at 860-509-7994. It may save your life.