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Florida Boy Who Was Battling Rabies After Bat Scratch Dies
NBC Miami ^ | Jan 15, 2018

Posted on 01/15/2018 3:03:11 PM PST by nickcarraway

6-year-old Ryker Roque passed away in an Orlando hospital, his father said Monday

A 6-year-old Florida boy who was undergoing experimental treatment after being diagnosed with rabies has died.

Ryker Roque passed away in an Orlando hospital, his father said Monday.

Roque had been undergoing the treatment, called the Milwaukee protocol, after he was scratched by a bat. His father, Henry Roque, had found the sick bat and put it in a bucket, telling his son not to touch it.

"So, apparently he put his hand in there and touched it and he said it only scratched him, so I frantically googled it real quick and it says to wash his hands with soap, hot water for five minutes," Henry Roque told NBC News.

When Ryker complained of numb fingers and a headache a week later, he was rushed to the hospital. Ryker was put into a medically induced coma, forcing his body to create its own specialized antibodies to fight off the illness.

The treatment has only worked twice in the U.S. and 18 times around the world.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: bat; florida; rabies
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To: nickcarraway

I posted yesterday before the kid died. I came away from posting the article with this:

I feel bad for the kid, but have ZERO sympathy for the father.

1. You DON’T leave a 6-year old unattended with a bat.

AND

2. Google AIN’T a doctor.

AND

3. You [Dad] AIN’T his “buddy”, you AIN’T his “pal” - you’re his FATHER. You shoulda acted like one and taken the kid for medical attention. Who cares if the kid didn’t want to get a shot?


101 posted on 01/15/2018 5:48:43 PM PST by Lmo56 (If ya wanna run with the big dawgs - ya gotta learn to piss in the tall grass ..6)
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To: nickcarraway

I believe there is only one recorded case of anyone surviving Rabies after symptoms have started. It was an experimental case where the Dr. Pretty much shut the persons brain off for an extended period.


102 posted on 01/15/2018 5:56:19 PM PST by Husker24
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To: DaveA37

It is sad, but once he was symptomatic, the treatment was a million-to-one chance. It could have been a minor thing, but instead, the child is dead.


103 posted on 01/15/2018 6:06:50 PM PST by Tax-chick ("It's the end of the world as we know it ... if the sky is falling, I don't want to be below it.")
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To: RoosterRedux

My father would have been upset, but I would have got the shots.

Heck, he lanced an infected finger I had as a kid. THAT hurt!


104 posted on 01/15/2018 6:32:35 PM PST by redgolum
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To: RhoTheta

Ping.


105 posted on 01/15/2018 6:39:13 PM PST by Egon
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To: Mom MD
"You were lucky! Any bat encounter is presumed to be rabid. Last I heard it did not require a definite skin break—- even contact with guano could be enough to transmit the disease. It’s a shame because they are fascinating creatures"

Yes. A little later (after the early '70s), there were warnings published in more books about bats other than vampire bats having rabies. The encounter in that cave probably involved a healthy bat, but with the newer common knowledge, there's no excuse for taking a chance. Spelunkers who are going to spend much time in undeveloped caves should get the vaccinations. They often crawl through puddles of guano in tight places, and scratches from rocks are common.


106 posted on 01/15/2018 6:41:03 PM PST by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." --Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: HangnJudge; RoosterRedux; nickcarraway
First survivor of Rabies. The girl behind the Willoughby Protocol.

Medical Mystery: Only One Person Has Survived Rabies without Vaccine--But How? .

107 posted on 01/15/2018 6:50:56 PM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.L)
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To: keat

The project was cancelled because it was not progressing fast enough.

But it seems that the different armed services really didn’t want the project because it got passed from service to service.

Had the Navy (the first service to have the project) seen the project through to completion it may have ended the war. Unlikely but possible.


108 posted on 01/15/2018 7:06:16 PM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.L)
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To: nickcarraway

WHY the HELL didn’t the dad just KILL the sick BAT???


109 posted on 01/15/2018 8:13:39 PM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: familyop

You were probably OK because you weren’t messing with a sick bat laying on the floor of the cave but one doing what bats are supposed to do- which generally means they are healthy.

My rabbits were attacked by neighborhood dogs once and some lost their toes through the wire to dogs’ nips when they panicked and hopped off the resting boards... some weeks later a neighbor kid came over and started to poke his fingers into the cages with the rabbits and we told him to leave the momma rabbit alone because she was grumpy.

Sure enough the teen couldn’t help himself and he starts poking at mamma rabbit and she nailed him good. We didn’t even consider rabies initially because our rabbits had always been quite healthy and momma rabbit never bit one of us; we figured she only did it because he was teasing her. Fortunately for him, while discussing why she bit him- was she pregnant, etc.... someone remembered the dog attack and we realized there was a possibility the rabbit could have caught rabies and called animal to get the rabbit tested just in case. (Poor rabbit).... but sure enough she was rabid from the dog bite to her toe and the neighbor kid had to get the shots.


110 posted on 01/15/2018 8:53:21 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Ann Archy

I went through the post exposure treatment twice. First in 1974 in the USAF I removed a dog’s head that was positive for Rabies. I didn’t wish to take a chance on the disease even though I was wearing gloves. It was the old protocol with around 19 injections of DEE vaccine made in the duck eggs. I was painfully sore in arms, legs and stomach after the injections. In 1982 I was exposed when I put my hand down a dog’s mouth that I discovered he had pharyngeal paralysis. It was rabid. The Human Diploid series consisted of six painless vaccinations. The downside is that the insurance company would not pay for it because it was a “vaccine” and not to treat a disease (yea, they were pricks) and even in 1982 it was $3K. I had the highest titer against rabies of all of the veterinary students at Tennessee because of the two post exposure treatments I received. Both times it was a rabid dog in an area that hadn’t had rabies in decades.


111 posted on 01/15/2018 8:54:04 PM PST by vetvetdoug
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To: Mom MD

Highly doubtful that it can be transmitted through guano- CDC also says it cannot.

If it could, my ggggg? grand aunt’s gunpowder business would have failed because she was getting her main raw material- bat guano- from a cave. At the time, Indians and loyalists were a bigger threat than rabies.


112 posted on 01/15/2018 9:12:13 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: piasa

May be doubtful but if I were crawling through caves I’d probably opt for the vaccine..... my uncle is a vet and had to have the entire series years ago (back when they were the painful abdominal injections) I believe he is able to maintain immunity with a periodic booster.


113 posted on 01/15/2018 10:27:38 PM PST by Mom MD ( .)
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To: nickcarraway
Rabies has to be one of the most horrifying diseases known to man. Logically, I know the bullet-shaped rabies virus is just RNA, just a string of proteins coiled around inside a "skin" with no will, no intent. It's a thing. But my feelings tell me it is evil. Diabolical. What it does to humans and animals sounds like it came straight from the mind of the devil.

It attacks the central nervous system -- spine and brain -- invading the cells so it can replicate. Here's a page from the Centers for Disease Control with diagrams and rather stuffy scientific-sounding narrative providing information about the rabies virus, rhabdoviridae, that doesn't begin to describe the horror of its effects. There are websites that do, though, along with videos on YouTube that will give you nightmares. www.cdc.gov/rabies/transmission/virus.html

Human cases are rare in the USA but rabies kills about 50,000 people a year in developing countries, most of them children. Once the symptoms manifest, death is inevitable. It is 100% fatal and unless palliative care is available, the process of dying is brutal and terrifying.

My "brush" with rabies: http://conniechastain.com/Spotty

Never, never, never take a chance with this disease. The father should have taken his son for treatment immediately after exposure. So sad for the child, but thankful that he was spared the horrific pre-death suffering he would have experienced if he'd been conscious.

114 posted on 01/15/2018 11:37:16 PM PST by Nellie Wilkerson
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To: vetvetdoug

OMG!!


115 posted on 01/16/2018 4:05:10 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Pearls Before Swine
Wonder if immediate medical attention would have made a difference - if so, the father will never forgive himself.

Prayers up.

116 posted on 01/16/2018 4:15:09 AM PST by trebb (I stopped picking on the mentally ill hypocrites who pose as conservatives......;-))
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To: RoosterRedux

“Idiots and their children don’t live long.”

I don’t know about that. Hillary got a fair number of votes last year.


117 posted on 01/16/2018 4:30:08 AM PST by MayflowerMadam
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To: Vermont Lt

On my honeymoon in 1970, we rented a cabin in Maine. A bat was flying around the bedroom. I trapped him with a trash can - while my husband hid under the covers. Oh... that would be my EX-husband.


118 posted on 01/16/2018 4:34:24 AM PST by MayflowerMadam
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To: trebb

If the vaccine protocol is administered immediately, within hours, success is over 90%. It is a series of shots administered over a couple weeks.

At LEAST, the parents should have called their physician IMMEDIATELY. They say they KNEW they should have taken him.

All the sympathy in the world for the kid - ZERO FOR THE PARENTS !!!


119 posted on 01/16/2018 6:28:21 AM PST by Lmo56 (If ya wanna run with the big dawgs - ya gotta learn to piss in the tall grass ..6)
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To: editor-surveyor

Where did you hear this? Because I work for a health department and have NEVER heard this happening. In fact, there is a different series that are given to veterinary students. To my knowledge, over the course of the years I worked there, I never heard of the shots being lethal. Expensive, yes, but not lethal. It’s not worth risking the illness itself, which IS fatal.


120 posted on 01/16/2018 3:23:27 PM PST by AmericanMermaid
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