What KARE‘s Sven Sundgaard thought was “no big deal” has turned out to be both expensive and painful for the meteorologist for the Minneapolis NBC affiliate.
Sundgaard has been undergoing a series of painful and expensive rabies vaccinations after he woke up with a bat on his face last Sunday. He told TVSpy he has three more rounds of injections that won’t end until September 3.
He told City Pages he was at his family’s cabin near Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota when he discovered the bat. On his face.
Once back at work, a co-worker told him that bats have a high incidence of transmitting rabies to humans. “So I called a doctor, and he said, ‘You should get the shots.'” Sungaard told City Pages. “I was like, ‘What, really?’ Then I got a second opinion and they said the same thing,”
Sundgaard may have been able to avoid the shots had he held on to the bat, but instead he chased it out of the cabin. “I guess the moral of the story is, catch it and save yourself time and money,” he said.
Now the local meteorologist is paying for the rabies scare both physically and financially. He said, because he has “crappy, high deductible insurance,” he’s paying $2,000 of the total $3,500 cost. He also said the shots are so painful, he can’t sit down afterwards. The photo shows the damage done after his first round of shots Tuesday. When a co-worker drove him home, he had to lie on his stomach the whole way.
[Rick Kupchella]