Rabies vaccines cost the family of Utah $ 50,000 after the death of a loved one

Before Gary Giles died of rage, 25 members of his family went to visit him at the hospital, reported KSL-TV. This decision could cost her family $ 50,000 in potentially "life-saving" treatments.

Gary Giles, 55, was the first man to die of rabies in Utah since 1944, KUTV reported after his death in November. Giles, from Moroni, Utah, was a father of four and would catch and release bats that were flying home.

"Bats never hurt us, and we always caught them in our hands and released them on the outside because you constantly heard how good the bats were for the public. Insects and you did not want to hurt them, "his wife, Juanita Giles said in November, according to the Deseret News. "The bats licked our fingers, almost as if they could taste the salty of our fingers, but they never bit us."

The couple did not realize that bats could have the deadly virus, reported the Deseret News.

But it's a bat that probably gave Gary Giles rage, said Utah State Department of Health, according to FOX13.

And his family did not know he was angry when he visited him at the hospital. They stayed with him in the hospital for 9 days while the doctors were performing tests, wrote his daughter Crystal Lynn Sedgwick in a message published by GoFundMe.

"Everything has returned normally," she wrote. "It has been incredibly annoying for the doctors and for our family."

During his stay at the hospital, 25 family members came to visit him, according to KSL.

He had early epileptic seizures, but his brain activity began to slow down, according to the GoFundMe. His family made the decision to take away his vital support because "if he woke up, he could not function the way he wanted," Sedgwick writes.

It was only until his father's death that the family learned what had killed him – rabies, Sedgwick said, according to FOX13.

The state health department called Juanita Giles two days after the death of her husband and asked her to immediately go to the hospital, she said, according to KSL. She and the other family members who visited Gary Giles received the recommended rabies vaccines.

In a statement provided to KSL and published Jan. 31, the Utah Department of Health said the family was right to seek treatment.

"Preventive treatment, while saving and very effective, is unfortunately very expensive," the department said. He said he would work with the family to "hopefully help them find a solution" for the $ 50,000 bill.

The Centers for Disease Control report that, although the cost may vary, "one anti-rabies immunoglobulin cycle and four doses of vaccine administered over a two-week period usually exceed $ 3,000".

"The cost per human life saved from rabies varies between about $ 10,000 and $ 100 million, depending on the nature of the exposure and the likelihood of rabies in a region," says the CDC.

"The CDC estimates that about one to three people in the United States catch rabies each year," McClatchy said. "The symptoms of rabies include: hallucinations, coma, difficulty swallowing, convulsions, stiff neck, muscle spasms, irritability, headache, anxiety and death."

Gary Giles' family wants people to become aware of the risk of rabies.

"Our hope is that people who see bats at home contact someone else to have them removed … that they do not try to delete them themselves." that they do not touch them, "Sedgwick said, according to KUTV.