Virginia woman wakes to find bat on her mouth

A Virginia doctor shared the unusual story of how she recently woke up in her home to find a bat attempting to get into her mouth.

Dr. Krista Edelman, a Richmond gastroenterologist, posted a video to Instagram explaining her experience last week.

“So I was dreaming, and in my dream there was a cute little field mouse. This is pretty vivid, the whole thing. A little field mouse trying to get into my mouth,” Edelman said.

She said she awoke and reached for her mouth, feeling an object there.

“I grabbed something, and ultimately, I had folded the bat’s wings back,” Edelman told WWBT-TV.

Edelman quickly realized there was a bat on her face.

“I screamed, and I was screaming repeatedly, something to the extent of like, ‘There’s a bat in my mouth. The bat is trying to get in my mouth,'” Edelman told WTVR-TV.

Edelman’s screams woke her husband, who captured the bat.

She took the bat with her to the emergency room.

Dr. Adam Landsee, the assistant medical director at St. Mary’s Hospital, said Edelman did the right thing, even though she didn’t believe she had been bitten by the animal.

“Bat teeth are very small, and you don’t know if you’ve been bitten or not, and with rabies being essentially fatal, they need to be treated,” Landsee said.

He recommended such situations always be treated with caution.

“If you wake up in a room with a bat in your room or in your kid’s room or in your house, you kind of have to assume the worst,” Landsee said.

The bat ultimately tested negative for rabies.

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Article: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2026/08/28/bat-mouth-Richmond-Virginia/4671787939807/