The Fremont County woman who died of rabies earlier this month was Karen Ann Farthing of Lander, who lived in Powell for 18 years. 

Farthing died Oct. 3 in a hospital in Salt Lake City at the age of 77. Hers was the first recorded human case of rabies in the state of Wyoming.

Her children, Lynn McRann of Lander, Bob Farthing of San Diego and Kristin Ashdown of Tucson, Arizona, have decided to tell their mother’s story in the hope that they can spare another family the grief and trauma they have experienced.

“Given the unusual set of circumstances, we want to make sure the right message is given to the public to prevent this tragedy from ever happening to another family,” McRann said in a written account, also signed by Bob Farthing and Ashdown.

They said the family’s story began on a beautiful summer evening when Bill and Karen Farthing entertained guests on the outdoor patio of their home. At the end of the evening, the Farthings propped their front door open for departing guests.

That night, Karen Farthing woke up feeling something on top of the covers over her leg, McRann said.

“Her initial reaction was to brush whatever it was off the bed, which woke up our father,” she wrote. “It was then that they discovered that it was a bat. They waited for it to land, placed a towel over it, and with gloves, our dad carefully captured it in a container and got it out of their home.

“He then had our mom wash her hand that had brushed away the bat with soap and water and proceeded to look for any bites with a magnifying glass. He carefully examined her hand for several days. There was never any indication of a bite — ever.”

It was nearly 41 days later when Farthing began to feel like she had the flu, McRann said.

“That was the onset of the symptoms of this devastating virus,” she said.

The initial diagnosis was Guillan Barre Syndrome.

“She was life-flighted to the University of Utah Medical Center, where the diagnosis of an atypical and very rare presentation of rabies encephalitis was made one day prior to her death,” McRann said.

“This was a shock to all the medical experts as well as to us as a family. The entire length of her disease, from those initial flu-like symptoms to death, was only 12 days.”

In their account, the Farthing siblings said this was not their parents’ first brush with a bat in their house.

“During the 35 years that our parents lived in their home, they have had a few encounters with bats in which our dad, using gloves, was safely able to capture the bats in a container.

“In fact, on three separate occasions they took the bats to four different local agencies to see if they could test the bats for rabies.”

All four said they could not perform that testing.

“Last summer, our dad opened up one of their outside umbrellas, and a bat flew out of it. Given this experience, he called two exterminating companies to see if they could somehow get rid of any bats that may come close to their home.

“He was told by both companies that they could not spray for bats, and there was nothing they could do. Our parents were informed, ‘You have to learn to live with the bats.’”

Exterminators reminded the Farthings that bats are good for insect control, especially mosquitos, thereby helping to prevent West Nile virus — “all of which was true,” McRann wrote.

“We feel our parents did everything possible to control for bats around their home,” the Farthing siblings concluded. “There is no evidence, nor had there ever been any evidence, of a colony of bats living close to their home. It is mainly one or two flying by, eating insects on a summer evening.”

Since their mother’s illness and death, the Farthing family has heard from numerous people who have had similar experiences with bats. They wish to pass along the following information to increase people’s awareness of the potential danger and how they should respond:

• After any encounter with a bat, seek medical advice, even if there is no indication of a bite.

• If you wake up with a bat in your home, seek medical advice.

• If you have friends or family members who tell you about a bat encounter, encourage or demand that they seek medical advice.

• There should be a local agency that has the ability to test bats for the rabies virus. Scientific literature estimates that 0.5-1 percent of bats carry the rabies virus, but they do not appear as “rabid” as other animals; they are just carriers of the disease.

• There has never been a reported case of human-to-human transmission of the virus, except in organ transplantation.

“None of us knew this information before all of this happened to our family,” the siblings said. “Our story ends with the loss of a beautiful, vibrant, loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.”

“Our family was devastated by the almost incalculable odds of the combined sequences of events that occurred,” McRann wrote as spokeswoman for all three siblings. “But as the fog of sadness and devastation begin to lift, we realize how incredibly lucky we are that our parents live in such a beautiful community as Lander, and an even broader community in the state of Wyoming and the United States.

“The outpouring of love, support and compassion from so many has helped to ease our profound sadness and shown us the true beauty of human nature.”