A 6-year-old Wisconsin girl is undergoing a series of lifesaving rabies shots after a bat wrapped itself around her leg and bit her while she was climbing a tree outside her family’s home.
Cecelia “Cece” Kale was playing in front of her home in Tigerton, about 65 miles west of Green Bay, at around 8 p.m. last Tuesday when the terrifying attack happened.
The bat suddenly latched onto Cece’s leg and wrapped its wings around her as she desperately tried to call for help.
“I just tried to scream and scream and scream until they came,” Cece told WBAY.
Her mother, Elizabeth Kale, said Cece climbs trees nearly every day, but something was clearly wrong when the little girl suddenly froze and struggled to speak.
“I thought she was trying to say, ‘It’s a bee!’” Elizabeth told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “But nothing was coming out right.”
Cece’s older brothers quickly jumped into action.
Her 16-year-old brother, Camden, reportedly knocked the bat off her leg using a homemade sword. Her 11-year-old brother, Nicklas, then grabbed the weapon and killed the animal.
“Nick made the homemade sword,” Elizabeth told NBC News. “We love Braveheart.”
In a bizarre coincidence, the sword had reportedly been made earlier that same day.
Cece was rushed to the emergency room, and the bat was sent for testing. Within 48 hours, the Shawano-Menominee Counties Health Department confirmed that the animal had tested positive for rabies.
Cece immediately received the first of four rabies vaccine shots and will need several follow-up injections.
The family has previously opposed mandated vaccinations but agreed to the treatment because rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms begin.
Elizabeth said the diagnosis left her terrified that her daughter may have been exposed to an ancient and deadly virus.
“You have all the thoughts run through your head of like, ‘What if I bury my child?’” she told WBAY. “It’s terrifying.”
Rabies attacks the central nervous system and can cause severe brain disease and death when treatment is not given before symptoms appear, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
People exposed to rabies typically receive a series of four or five vaccine shots as soon as possible. Health officials say the treatment is nearly 100 percent effective when administered promptly.
Around 100,000 Americans receive rabies vaccinations each year following possible exposure. Human deaths remain rare in the United States, with fewer than 10 reported annually.
The Shawano-Menominee Counties Health Department said it is not unusual for the region to record at least one rabid bat each year.
Elizabeth described Cece as “incredibly brave” and said she has handled the painful injections remarkably well.
“We’ve been praying about it like crazy,” she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Despite the frightening encounter, Elizabeth said the family has no plans to leave its rural home.
“We want to live out here to give our kids land and homeschool and to raise them as we would have in 1850 and to give them that type of lifestyle,” she told NBC News. “And they’re thriving.”
