Parkgoer says he was attacked, bitten by bats at SW Miami-Dade park

MIAMI - A South Florida man said he was swarmed by bats at a Southwest Miami-Dade park earlier this week and woke up the next day with teeth marks on his body.

Daemyn Maldonado, 22, believes the bites were caused by bats. One expert, however, said he is not so sure about that. Either way, park officials are taking the mysterious bites seriously.

Maldonado, who is warning others to beware, said he was walking with his friend through Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park and Campground, adjacent to Zoo Miami, when "the bats just swooped down."

CBS News Miami asked a couple of joggers at the park if they had seen bats and one of them said, "You see them flying around sometimes, but yeah, they are here."

"Don't go there until the bats are taken care of," said Maldonado.

What happened to Daemyn under a park canopy scarred him with marks on his hands and left thigh.

He said he never felt the bites until the fears of rabies sank in. "My fear is that I was going to be afraid of water and air soon. I really did not want that," said Maldonado.

Daemyn met a friend at the park on Sunday night. That is when they saw three bats swarm in a circle, too close for comfort.

"I could hear their wings flapping. They were that close," said Daemyn.

The friends left, seemingly without trouble, but the next day, the 22-year-old studying to be a nurse, who is also the son of a CBS News Miami employee noticed parallel bite marks and worried a bat did it.

"It would be extremely unusual for a bat to just fly down and bite someone," wildlife
expert Ron Magill said bats native to South Florida only bite in self-defense, usually. "Unless
it's something like a rabid bat. A rabid bat would be a totally unusual behavior. It could be an aggressive behavior, but having said that, if a rabid bite bites you, you would feel it."

When Maldonado went to urgent care, the staff there sent him to the emergency room for treatment. That's where doctors injected each of his bites with rabies immune globulin, an antibody treatment that Pediatric Hospitalist Dr. Gabriella Dauer is familiar with.

"It is absolutely possible, and most commonly when you're bitten by a bat, you will not know it whatsoever," Dr. Dauer said. "So, when we talk about recommendations for why to come in, it's just having a bat around you. We have kids who go to camp in the Northeast, Northwest and we tell them, we tell the parents, if there's ever a bat in the cabin, all the kids need to come in."

In a statement, a spokesperson from Miami-Dade County Parks tells CBS News Miami, "To our knowledge, we have never experienced this type of incident before at this or any other Miami-Dade park. Please be assured that we take these matters very seriously. Our goal in Miami-Dade parks is always to create outstanding experiences and enhance the quality of life for the residents within our community."

Daemyn hardly feels secure and wants others in the park to be aware, while Magill said people should not come to this park afraid of bats, even when circled. He says bats are after mosquitoes and not people.

At this point, it's not clear what the Parks Department plans to do next.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said bat bites do not always cause a visible mark yet can still spread rabies virus through infected saliva, so a clinical or public health provider should assess any direct contact with a bat.

Daemyn said he wanted to share his story because even though the chances of developing rabies may be low, it was a chance he was not willing to take. His advice is to seek medical attention, as soon as possible, if bitten by a bat.

The CDC said exposure to rabid bats is the leading cause of rabies in humans in the U.S., accounting for 70% of people who become infected.

CDC experts said it typically takes anywhere between three weeks to three months, though sometimes more or less time, for people to develop symptoms , if infected.

Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park and Campground is located in the 12400 block of SW 184th Street.