RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. A woman has revealed how an evening jog left her in the emergency room followed by weeks of medical treatment.
Sophia Coe, 25, made the decision to go out for a jog around Edwin Warner Park in Nashville, Tennessee in early August. It was around 7:30 p.m. at the time and the sun was setting, so Coe wanted to finish her run before it got too dark.
As she was running , Coe, a teacher and a musician, told Newsweek that she felt "a little prick" on the back of her leg. She initially believed it was a tick bite, which was a scary enough prospect to her. However, when she looked at her calf, she realized the problem was much worse.
"I looked down and saw the wings, so I thought it was a moth," Coe said. "What I did not know then was that moths don't have teeth, so they can't bite people. It was on me for a while, long enough for me to feel the bite. I kept hitting it and then it finally released and went for my other calf through my leggings," she continued.
Coe continued to hit the creature to scare it off and eventually had to hit it with her phone until it flew away. She said the incident was "really scary," and it left her "yelping and whimpering."
Once the chaos concluded, it became clear that this was no moth or insect. It was in fact, a bat.
Coe returned home swiftly and washed the bites on her legs with antibacterial soap. Once the wounds were clean, she swiftly looked up the nearest emergency room and headed straight there.
"I knew right away that it was a bat because I looked up bat bites and they looked exactly like mine. I respect bats, they're great for the ecosystem and we need them, but I am definitely scared of them now," Coe said.
Having only moved to Nashville recently to pursue her career in music, this was an incredibly scary experience to go through alone.
Doctors cleaned her wounds multiple times and began the precautionary rabies treatment. They repeatedly told Coe that rabies "is a death sentence" and it was very likely that she had been exposed to it.
Rabies is a viral, zoonotic tropical disease that causes tens of thousands of deaths globally each year. Once the virus infects the central nervous system, clinical symptoms appear and it is then 100 percent fatal.
Bats are now the primary source of human rabies in the Americas, according to the WHO. Symptoms of furious rabies include hyperactivity, hallucinations, lack of coordination and fear of water, while the other type of rabies, known as paralytic rabies, causes paralysis before an eventual coma.
The incubation period is typically two to three months, but the WHO notes that it can vary from anywhere between a week to a year. This is why it is vitally important to seek medical attention immediately after contact with a potentially rabid animal .
Coe received multiple shots in her arms and legs, including ones directly into the wound sites.
"I was whimpering like a child and screaming as she put the shots in the bat bites," Coe said. "That was so painful, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I was tearing up and it was so scary to do alone."
Following the first treatment, Coe struggled to put weight on her leg and walked with a limp for three days. She also got slightly sick and struggled to sleep because she was so distressed by the ordeal.
Coe told Newsweek that this "freak incident" left her scared and confused, but she is fortunately feeling much better now. She has been documenting her rabies treatment on social media (@sophiacoemusic on Instagram), with many of the videos going viral online.
This has certainly been an eye-opening experience, but Coe hopes to educate others on the importance of swift action.
Coe continued: "My message to others is that rabies is serious and if you don't get help right away, you'll die. If you develop your first symptom, it's too late. They really stressed death to me and said it doesn't matter if you think the animal is cute, if a wild animal bites you, you need to get immediate treatment."
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