A Virginia doctor woke up with a bat trying to snuggle into her mouth last week.
Dr Krista Edelman was asleep, dreaming of a 'little mouse' trying to get into her mouth when reality woke her up.
Half asleep, she sensed something near her face which she said was 'kind of slimy and hairy and cool. And I immediately somehow knew it was a bat.
'This bat was legitimately trying to burrow between my lips into my mouth, was trying to get past my teeth.
'I grabbed this bat and threw it across the room and I screamed and I told my husband there was a bat trying to get into my mouth.'
After the initial shock, Edelman quickly researched and found out that she should try to catch the bat to test it for rabies, which she managed to do.
Edelman told the story in a viral video on her Instagram account which got more than 1.1 million views and was shared about 43,000 times.
Dr Krista Edelman managed to trap the bat which tested negative for rabies. She said she wanted to share her story to help others who might find themselves in a similar situation
Edelman was dreaming of a 'little mouse' trying to get into her mouth when reality woke her up and she realized it was a bat 'legitimately trying to burrow between my lips into my mouth'
Comments under the gastroenterologist's post admire her calmness in handling the situation: 'Girl. You are way too cool about this. This would ruin my life.'
Another user even shared a similar story: 'I had to cancel my honeymoon over a bat dive bombing my face while walking my dog at dusk.'
After the initial shock, Edelman quickly called a friend who is an infectious disease doctor to ask whether she needed to seek a rabies vaccine immediately.
'He was anxious, and he's not a very anxious person. So when he got anxious, I started to get anxious, and what I didn't fully realize at the time was that the closer to the brain the exposure, the markedly accelerated risk of transmission,' Edelman said.
Comments under Edelman's post expressed shock and admiration for how she handled the situation
Another user shared a similar story under Edelman's post, saying how she had to cancel her honeymoon 'over a bat dive bombing my face while walking my dog at dusk'
At the end of her viral Instagram video, Edelman shared recommendations for anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation in the future
Her friend urged her to get treated as quickly as possible. Edelman went to the emergency department at St. Mary's Hospital, where she works, and was seen by the assistant medical director for the ER, Dr Adam Landsee, WRAL News reported.
Landsee urged people who end up in similar situations to take it seriously: 'If you wake up in a room with a bat in your room or in your kid's room or in your house, you kind of have to assume the worst.
'Bat teeth are very small and you don't know if you've been bitten or not, and with rabies being essentially fatal, they need to be treated.'
Virginia's public health veterinarian with the Virginia Department of Health, Dr Julia Murphy, said submissions of bats for rabies testing increased this year but that the number of bats that have tested positive is not up.
Murphy recommended following Edelman's example and trap the bat before contacting your local health department. Local health departments can turn around bat rabies testing in roughly 48 hours. If the test comes back negative, a vaccine will not be needed.
Edelman learned the bat that tried to get into her mouth tested negative for rabies. She said she shared her story to help others who might find themselves in a similar situation.
'I was compelled to put it out there because I was a little humbled. Like I, again, grew up in rural Hanover. Like I think I know the basics of things, and I was humbled about how I didn't really know what to do in that situation,' Edelman said.
