An 11-year-old girl was rushed to hospital after being bitten by a bat as she ate dinner in her mum’s Dundee home.
The nightmarish incident occurred as Victoria Kimmet was enjoying a family meal, when a bat flew in through the window and started to swoop for the diners.
In the ensuing chaos, it appeared that Victoria was bitten five times as she tried to protect herself from the creature.
At first, the family thought it was a bird that had flown into their living room, and it was not until the animal hung upside down on the curtain rail that they realised it was a bat.
Victoria was then taken to the accident and emergency department at Ninewells hospital, and an officer from the SSPCA was called to remove the pipistrelle bat from the house.
Bats can transmit the potentially deadly disease rabies to humans.
Due to the uncommon nature of bat bites, Victoria and her family had to wait for several hours at Ninewells for the appropriate medicine to be transferred from Edinburgh.
Victoria will also need to go for follow-up appointments at her GP, to make sure there are no adverse effects of the medication she was given.
Although given a scare, she was not seriously hurt.
He father Steve said: “She wasn’t aware that she had actually been bitten – she just threw her hands up in a bit of a blind panic when it was flying around the room.
“It happened at her mum’s house, just off the Kingsway and it wasn’t until it actually hung from the curtain rail they realised it was a bat.”
Steve said the family rushed Victoria to Ninewells, where it was discovered she had five little bite marks on her hand.
He added: “They got medication taxied over from Edinburgh and we had to go up for more injections at King’s Cross on Sunday.”
Animal rescue officer Sharon McKenzie said: “I was contacted to rescue a pipistrelle bat from a property in Dundee on Thursday evening.
“The bat was on the curtains in the living room and must have got in through the window.
“I was able to catch the bat and release it outside.
“Bats are not aggressive animals, although like any wild animal they may bite if they feel threatened.”
An NHS Tayside spokesman said: “A&E departments in Tayside see a small number of patients attending with animal bites. It is very rare that someone would present with a bat bite.
“All patients are individually clinically assessed and offered the appropriate treatment. When a risk of rabies has been identified we would follow the latest Health Protection Scotland guidance.”
There can be a very small risk of a bat bite infecting a human with rabies, and a spokesman from Health Protection Scotland said: “If you’re bitten by a bat in the UK, your bite should be immediately assessed and, as a matter of urgency, you should be given the rabies treatment to prevent rabies developing.
“The same advice applies if you’ve been bitten by an animal while abroad in a country where rabies is widespread.
“Treatment to prevent rabies developing after a bite is known as post-exposure prophylaxis.
“You will be given one dose of rabies immunoglobulin – a blood product that contains antibodies against the disease – and five doses of the rabies vaccine. If exposure to rabies is uncertain, the vaccination on its own may be considered.”
