California art teacher dies of rabies after being bitten by bat in school classroom

A California art teacher has died from rabies after she was bitten by a bat inside her school classroom.

Leah Seneng, a 60-year-old teacher at Bryant Middle School in Dos Palos, Merced County, had spotted the wild bat in her classroom sometime in mid-October, her close friend Laura Splotch told ABC30.

When she tried to pick it up and take it outside, the bat bit her, Splotch said.

“I don’t know if she thought it was dead or what caused it to lie around her classroom and she was trying to scoop it up and take it outside,” she said.

“She didn’t wanna harm it. But that’s when, I guess it woke up or saw the light or whatever it swooped around a bit and it took off.”

In the days that followed, Seneng reportedly showed no signs or symptoms of rabies.

But around a month later, the 60-year-old mother became unwell.

Her daughter took her to hospital where she was immediately induced into a coma, reported the local outlet.

She died four days later.

The California Department of Public Health confirmed that a Fresno County resident w​as “bitten by a presumably rabid bat” in Merced County and warned other residents to remain cautious.

“The Fresno County Department of Public Health (FCDPH) and the Merced County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) worked with CDPH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to investigate rabies as a possible cause of the patient’s illness in mid-November,” the agency said in a statement.

“Samples collected at the hospital where the patient was being cared for were submitted to the state’s Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory (VRDL) where evidence of rabies was confirmed.”

The agency urged Californians to seek medical attention if they believe they may have been exposed to rabies by being bitten by wild animals, in particular bats and skunks. Bats are the most common source of human rabies in the US.

CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Tomás J. Aragón said: “It is always safest to leave wild animals alone. Do not approach, touch, or try to feed any animals that you don’t know.”

A GoFundMe has been organized by Splotch to support Seneng’s family.