Rabies Mom

Book excerpt: When Pat Carroll agreed to joint custody of his six children after separating from his wife in 2004, he never imagined that his 10-year-old daughter Shannon would be hospitalized, put into a medically-induced coma, and eventually die from complications from rabies. Shannon had been bitten by an infected bat, but according to Pat, her mother failed to seek proper medical attention until it was too late. In October 2006, Shannon became the first person to die from rabies in her home state of Indiana since 1959, and the only U.S. citizen to die from the disease that year.