Bat swoops out of hiding to bite human baby

PASCO, Wash. — A baby is being treated for rabies after it was bitten by a bat that flew out of a patio umbrella on the deck of her grandparents’ Pasco home. Dan and Sandra Anderson were babysitting 11-month-old Alanna on Saturday evening when Dan Anderson opened the umbrella and Sandra Anderson noticed something flutter out toward Alanna. “It was weird. I thought maybe it was moths,” Sandra Anderson told the Tri-City Herald newspaper. Then she saw the bat clinging to Alanna’s back near her left shoulder. She brushed the bat away and then noticed two pair of tiny bite marks, even though the bat had been on the baby only a few seconds. Alanna didn’t cry — until she noticed how upset her grandmother was. The baby was given shots at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland. Her grandparents are getting vaccine shots for rabies, too, as a precaution. The family thought it had seen the last of the bat, but they were on the patio again Sunday for Mother’s Day when they noticed something black inside the closed umbrella. This time, Alanna’s father, Derek Anderson, killed it with a piece of metal. He turned it over to the Benton Franklin Health Department and it tested positive for rabies. The virus can be fatal without medical attention. “I’m thankful we saw the bat on her and could take her for treatment,” said Sandra Anderson. “Everything’s fine. It’s 100 percent curable,” Derek Anderson said.