United Pilot Sues Marriott After Hotel Room Invaded By Bats, Leading To Bites, Rabies Shots

Maybe, some of that money was for therapy. I know, that the very real fear of dying from an uncurable disease, would mess with anyones head. Marriott is 100% at fault.

In this day and age in the USA, people try and sue over quite literally anything. This is a lawsuit that is actually acceptable. How horrific of Marriott for the handling of this situation. Rabies shots are no joke either.

For all readers living outside USA, the most shocking fact (?) here is the dollar amount. The idea that rabies protocol could cost a person more than $300 out of pocket is absurd. Common drugs, minimal expert attention, easy availability at all healthcare facilities. In Canada a visit to a walk-in clinic would deal with a rabies concern and the bite(s) in about an hour, for zero dollars and zero cents. Absurd.

Plus, if he's a pilot he's got a healthcare plan, which covers it all.

I have the same questions Ben has, and more. Story fails smell test.

The high cost is likely due to the pilot needing rabies shots plus rabies immunoglobulin injections. When someone actually gets bitten, the wound area needs to be infiltrated with the rabies immunoglobulin, which is expensive. Also, the rabies shots is a series of 4-5 shots, depending on if the person is immunocompromised. Sometimes people get their initial and follow up shots at an Emergency Room, as doctor's offices might not regularly have the vaccine in stock. The need for the Immunoglobulin and repeated ED visits for follow up shots are likely the reason for the $100k cost. I to work in an Emergency Department as a pharmacist and this is the typical treatment protocol for rabies exposure.

Something here doesn't add up. It sounds like maybe this pilot had made the terrible decision to opt out of the United Airlines corporate medical insurance policy so that he wouldn't have to pay premiums, and is now paying for it, so to speak.

I've had a bat encounter and went through the full rabies vaccine series - was totally covered under my Blue Cross policy as medically necessary.

Nah, let’s not insert plausible deniability here. Defending Marriott, or obfuscating their liabilities, by blaming the victim here, is sad.

@1990

Not intending to defend Marriott- they should be held responsible for their negligence.

Going to an emergency room for cancer treatment shouldn’t cost $100k, let alone some basic rabies shots. American Healthcare is broken.

He turns into Batman.

Pilot is justified without doubt . Pilot's employer is being a cheap-charlie . It is not excusable to stiff an employee regarding the mayhem of a swarm of bats and their bites .

What if it was a swarm of snakes , buffalos , or piranas ?

Jenny is correct. Rabies exposure shots are completely different than a rabies prevention vaccine .I had to get mine through the health department. The good news ; I no longer fear bats!

For all the non-lawyers commenting, the 100k has more to do with proving damages (although the medical care may well have cost that much in the US, depending how it was obtained). But in any US lawsuit, to get money as compensation, you have to show damages, and the best way to do that is through high medical bills. Therefore, it's better for a plaintiff to go the most expensive route to get treatment. In reality, a plaintiff who has suffered a bat attack due to the hotel's negligence (leaving a hole in the A/C) shouldn't have to rack up a big medical bill in order to get substantial compensation for an outrageous incident like this, but that's just the way American tort law works.

"American Healthcare is broken."

Indeed. There was recently an article about Scott Kirby referring to the US as "the greatest country in the world", but I can't see how a country with that healthcare system could ever be considered for this title.

For comparison - I recently needed a course of rabies injections (both immunoglobulin and intramuscular shots). The cost was 160 USD all in.

Regarding cost: in most places in the US you have to go to the ER to have this done. In the hospital I worked at they would have you come back to the ER for each subsequent treatment (it’s multiple treatments). The cost still seems somewhat high to me but the amount that they would have put in the lawsuit is undoubtedly the “sticker price” (that super high price that is on the initial bill that is then greatly reduced by your insurance company)

All of America is broken. Healthcare system is just a symptom of the deeper rot…

The $100K in medical bills alleged in the lawsuit is probably an exaggeration of the actual costs this unfortunate plaintiff incurred. Much of that is simply the manner in which a lawsuit is drafted in the US. It may be that the 100K is also including his "pain and suffering", an element of recoverable damages, but without seeing the actual lawsuit its difficult to say.

As to whether his private or employers medical insurance would have paid his medical bills, they most likely did. The insurer would then be able to recover that portion of the plaintiff's recovery in the lawsuit attributable to actual medical costs paid by the insurer, from the plaintiff after he is paid (its known as the right of subrogation).

Had this been Ozzy Osbourne, the hotel would have been praised for its next level room service.

Classic Marriott. If we had data tracking number of such incidents per total room count, Marriott would be 2nd. Then IHG at 3rd.

But by far the leader to health and safety hazards is Wyndham.

I won't be commenting on the lawsuit itself, but bats around you is not a laughing matter.
There was a very recent case where a boy died from rabies after waking up with a bat resting on his face at a northern Ontario cottage. Because there were no visible bites or scratches, the family did not initially seek medical care. He developed severe neurological symptoms weeks later and passed away. Maybe the boy has digested the bat's saliva...
I can imagine the pilot must have been very concerned about the outcome, even if a full shot therapy has been applied

I too work in emergency medicine and this is the correct answer. 4-5 ER visits each at several thousand dollars before you even consider the injections. $100k seems on the high side of plausible, but not out of the question.

Simply awakening in a room with a bat buys you the injections, irrespective of if you can locate a bite or not.

As to why it costs $100k for 5 visits and injections….another (very valid) discussion entirely

Rabies injections (vaccines or immunoglobulins) are not routinely carried at all healthcare facilities in the US.

In my system only our Emergency rooms carry them.

Once I give the initial doses I can order the subsequent doses to be given at the hospitals infusion center vs another ER visit, but it must be prearranged/ordered for the needed doses to be on hand.

No GP office or community pharmacy will have either injection.

There's no way such medication costs $100K in other countries, so is this just an example of inflated American health care prices?

If you went to an Australian ER with a bat-bite, an entire post-exposure prophylaxis protocol would be put into gear, with vaccine and immunoglobulin shots funded and coordinated by the government. That's "socialist" health care for you.

Sounds like a clear-cut case of workman's compensation to me. He on a work trip. The overnight in Denver was a part of his line assignment for the month. United; or their insurer, at least; should pay his bills, as they are directly related to a workplace injury.

Health care plans don’t cover liability or negligence of other parties… $100k likely is because health care, lawyers, lost wages especially as a pilot which has strict health compliance for commercial… if there is a third party that can pay the costs then it becomes your problem to recover the costs.. US healthcare is a nightmare…

The saddest thing here is the medical costs , I can’t imagine living with the knowledge that a simple rabies shot and additional care costs that much , thankfully our health care means we just get these shots and say thank you and “have a nice day” bye with no costs incurred

Retired physician here, and I agree with the other commenters that $100k for the injections (including rabies hyperimmune globulin) seems high by a factor of 3-4x. There's another charge in there. If the care is covered by private insurance or by a state-required workers comp pool then the charges for meds and care will have been negotiated down from list price during yearly negotiates between the hospital system and insurer(s). For drugs it's usually in the ballpark of 50%, although insurers will often accept a smaller discount on a medication infrequently used in their covered population in order to get a bigger discount on a frequently used. The insurer knows their covered population much better than the hospital. Access to this discount is such an important reason to pay for insurance, even if it's a lower premium "catastrophic" policy with a very high deductible.

I was staying at Singita Lembombo in S. Africa with my 13 year old daughter and we had bats in our room. First realized in the morning when I turned the bathroom lights on to get ready for the morning game drive and sensed something moving about in the room. Screamed at my daughter not to move, she hit the floor and we both crawled out of the cottage. Security / ranger came and removed bat -- were told all was well. That night when I turned out the lights she heard something in the room, sure enough another bat. I turned the lights on, called receptions and asked to move rooms immediately (due to the bat situation). Reception said that they only had 1 available cottage and it hadn't been cleaned after prior guests left and they'd have to call housekeeping in to clean it; so be it, I told them. Short while later we moved cottages in our pajamas with basic necessities with us. Turns the (new) room hadn't been fully cleaned (garbage was in cans, etc.), but didn't discover that until the morning. We were told that we were the first guests staying in that cottage after a renovation and that bats had nested in there while it was empty for a prolonged period. When I pushed for some kind of restitution (this was our very first safari and first safari lodge), was told it "was common in Africa" and that was that; they didn't even give us extra caramels when we departed for our next stay at Singita Boulders. We have since stayed at 7 other safari lodges and never had bats in our room. Singita charged (at that time) $3,000 pp / night (daughter was 1/2 price since was under 16). I left a scathing review on TA, which appears to have dropped off -- this was approx. 10 years ago (do TA reviews drop off?). Having bats in ones room is terrifying, even if they are "just harmless" fruit bats (which is what is common in the region of S. Africa we were).

He's allowed to claim the full cost of medical treatment as damages in his lawsuit, regardless of how much was paid by insurance or workers compensation. That's just the way it works. That's what keeps the chiropractic industry in business, with treating whiplash. On the other hand, if he were past 65 or disabled, Medicare might be the primary insurer, and it would have to be reimbursed for any costs it paid.

Insurance Scam, Workmans Comp Scam,Disability, any other scams?

he didn't ask to change room. that's so strange to me.

YIKES

Should he have had to even ask? Should not the hotel have packed his things and moved him to a different room, say, one without rabid bats?

The protocol for bedbugs at any hotel in the US is, once identified, the property seals off the rooms to the left, to the right, directly above, directly below, and directly across the hall, and keeps those rooms out of commission until the infestation is gone.

One would think that there would be at a minimum some sort of greater protocol when rabid bats - that can actually kill you - bite you.

“… claiming that these kinds of things happen, and that no one is at fault.”

That is so true. Whenever I’m at a hotel and I’m bitten by rabid bats, I just look up to the sky and say “mother nature, you win again!” and then the bats that are trying to kill me and I, we all laughed together because these kinds of things happen in hotel hotels, and no one’s at fault.

In NY and possibly elsewhere the insurance in certain cases can demand to be reimbursed by the insured after a settlement. It often depends on whether the insured was insured as an individual or very large group policy.

I'm actually concerned that you might be showing the neurological symptoms of rabies.

I know that in the greatest country in the world (at leat to some sources) medical treatment is outrageously expensive but this is bordering insane. A full vaccination against rabies in Germany is around 100€. Yes 100 not 100k.

If this guy had taken a first class flight to Germany got the vaccination here it would have cost him one tenth of the claimed cost.

Europe might be a museum as someone said but at least we take care of our sick.

Whew! that should be a large settlement lawsuit on Marriott. Marriott did the same thing to us for making their own mistake to us. They thought throw some points and don't bother us.
Very repressive management starting at the top.
The damages alone, plus the trauma to the man, should be multi-millions.

How dumb is that, you are bitten with rabies and fly all the way to Germany with risk, when there is treatment where he is.

*the* Batman

If a buffalo "swarm" were to be present in a 22nd floor hotel room, I would guess there's other problems that need to be taken care of.
It'd seem rather amusing though to see those buffalo squeeze through a hole in the AC from the outside after fearlessly scaling the facade of the building

We all know, that bats can harbour many forms of bacteria and many RNA virus types:- Rabies. MERS, ..etc. I am sure bats found in Denver, should be quite benign. But apart for the cost of the time-off, rabies shoots and hospitalisation. A greater cost would be the mental stress, the stress of not knowing what infection, virus or even a novel virus; he MAY have gotten.

This guy had to get three shots of a standard vaccine. Multi million dollars. my …

And I wonder that even in the dysfunctional health system in the USA he had to pay 100k

And as far as I know United pilots have a pretty decent health insurance

The air distance between LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and Denver International Airport (DEN) is about 1,620 miles (2,607 km).

OOF

100k USD?? Wow.

I was bit/scratched by a dog during my travels in India. The dog was vaccinated (though I found much later) but still got a dose of five rabies shots and an initial immunoglobulin dose. Total came out to around Rupees 7000 or about 70 USD in today’s exchange rate. This too in a private hospital. My associate told me that it would have been free at a government hospital, but it would have probably taken me the entire day due to the number of patients.

Makes me wonder about health and medical costs in the US.

Apparently the rabies shot series (4 to 5 shots) runs about $12,500 per shot, so the series alone can cost between $50k and $60k.