A woman from Massachusetts, Erica Kahn, is asking for money via a GoFundMe campaign after an unusual accident involving a bat on vacation resulted in approximately $21,000 in medical bills.
Last year, during a trip visiting Horseshoe Bend in Arizona with her father, Kahn was excited to see and photograph the environment.
According to her GoFundMe campaign, as she was preparing to take a night time photo, many bats started to fly around them. Then one flew right into Kahn's face and got stuck between her mouth and camera, and when it did, part of the bat went into her mouth.
"As I was screaming, part of the bat unfortunately went in my mouth (fun fact, they taste earthy and a little sweet!)," she wrote on her campaign page.
Niezapomniane wakacje zamieniły się w koszmar, gdy Erica Kahn musiała stawić czoła nieoczekiwanym kosztom leczenia po spotkaniu z nietoperzem. https://t.co/TB5cTgrnmR
— Fakt (@Fakt_pl) August 4, 2025
“I screamed the loudest I’ve ever screamed,” Kahn recalled of the moment the bat struck. She immediately spit the bat out, and while there was no bite, the exposure still required immediate medical evaluation because of the possibility of rabies. Her dad, a doctor, advised her to begin the rabies vaccination series as soon as possible.
At the time, Kahn did not have active health insurance. She had lost her job just a few months prior and opted not to sign up for the federal COBRA program because it was expensive. At the last minute, she signed up for an insurance policy just before treatment, but in the end her claim was denied.
While receiving a total of four doses of rabies vaccine and three immune globulin (IgG) injections from four different hospitals, Kahn supposedly incurred $20,749.29 in medical billing. Looking back, Kahn admitted that it was a financial and emotional hardship and wished she had not gambled with the decision to skip COBRA.
"I believe life-saving medical care is a fundamental human right and it's depressing that Americans can only turn to GoFundMe instead of a federally protected safety net. I made a mistake by choosing not to pay for COBRA, but the cost of these seven shots is pretty extreme," she added.
Erica Kahn has tried to negotiate her medical costs and has challenged her insurer. Kahn created a GoFundMe campaign entitled "Help Erica Kahn with Medical Bills After Rabies Exposure" to help her financially.
On the GoFundMe fundraiser website she goes into greater detail, acknowledging the bizarre nature of the experience, while managing to keep a lighthearted attitude about it. Kahn even remarked how the bat tasted.
Erica Kahn definitely does not want to vilify bats and accepts the importance of them in the ecosystem. Kahn plans to donate half of her GoFundMe proceeds to UNICEF to help support health care for families in need.
TOPICS: Human Interest, Erica Kahn , Arizona, bats, Horseshoe Bend