‘It clung on for dear life’: Shock gatecrasher at holiday Airbnb

A fun weekend away turned into a nightmare for Natalie O’Brien. But the real hell began when she tried to seek medical help.

It wasn’t the start to a long-awaited friends’ weekend on the Central Coast I had been hoping for.

Six of us had booked into an elegant Airbnb in beautiful and serene Killcare Heights for a birthday celebration, only to be joined by an unexpected gate crasher.

We hadn’t even finished unpacking the car, when my husband spotted a very cute baby bat looking lost and bewildered. It was twilight and the little bat had flown into the front yard and was hanging upside down from a bush. Knowing me to be an animal lover, he called me to come and take a look.

News Corp reporter Natalie O'Brien, showing a scratch on her neck where a bat attacked her on the NSW Central Coast, just days after guests at a wedding had the same encounter with a bat at Hardy's Bistro. Supplied

A bat attacks guests at a wedding at Hardy's Bistro on the NSW Central Coast on Thursday night. Source - Nine News

But as I was trying to inspect the bat to make sure it was not hurt or injured – from what I thought was a safe distance for both of us of about two metres, the bat turned his big, liquid, brown eyes on me must have decided I looked like a sympathetic refuge and flew straight towards me.

I ducked thinking he would fly over the top of me, but instead he landed attaching himself to my shirt and clung on for dear life.

His aerobatics sent my husband into a spin and he bravely leapt to my defence. But his attempts to dislodge the baby bat armed only with his mobile phone made him cling tighter and crawl towards my hair and my shoulder, digging his tiny claws into my shoulders.

Revellers are attacked by a bat at Hardy's Bistro on the NSW Central Coast. Picture: Nine News

Concerned about the risk of rabies, Natalie O'Brien went to see a doctor. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

I called to one of our shocked friends who was watching the whole drama unfold and asked him to get a towel, which my husband then used to cover the bat and gently lift him up while we unclipped his claws from my shirt and my neck.

Mission successful, the bat was safely back into the bushes, albeit looking terrified and shaky. I was left with long scratch marks that had drawn blood. Having written recent stories about rabies and the long, slow, painful and inevitable death if you don’t get the post exposure vaccine in time- I called the public health line.

As it turns out I wasn’t the only one that week getting unwanted bat attention.

A pre-wedding drinks party at Hardy’s Bay Bistro just a short bat flight away – experienced something similar.

Six people were scratched in that melee when the bat swooped in again and again clinging onto handbags of all things, and then people.

But the biggest drama turned out to be attempting to get proper medical help.

The biggest drama turned out to be attempting to get proper medical help.

A bat attacks guests at a wedding at Hardy’s Bistro on the NSW Central Coast. Picture: Nine News

After being directed to a private emergency clinic in the area by the public health line – I was told to come in the next morning. The doctor wrote -up a script for the rabies vaccine and sent me off on a simply ridiculous search for the vaccine, which I have since learnt has been out of stock in Australia for at least three years.

One pharmacist near the medical centre just said to me “good luck with that” you will never find it here, and the public hospital pharmacy is closed. Thanks for nothing.

And the second pharmacist’s valiant attempts to find some only to be told there were no stocks available anywhere in Australia. She also had no idea what to do next.

Back at the doctor’s and I said well what are we going to do now? I knew I needed the post exposure vaccine within 24 hours and the clock was ticking down.

The doctor said ‘I don’t know!’. A nurse giving me a tetanus booster said “good thing you sought medical help”. I almost burst out laughing. What help? None of you know what to do.

So my husband and I drove to the public Gosford Hospital and unknown but luckily for me, the wedding party had also gone there for help.

The hospital rushed some of the only tightly-held vaccines in the state from Sydney to Gosford the night before to treat the wedding party.

Luckily again, the hospital had some second doses available – for the wedding party victims – but because I was running out of time to get the vaccine, they gave me one of them.

I have since googled rabies vaccine shortage discovering NSW Health Department warned GPs three years ago that there was a shortage.

Originally published as ‘It clung on for dear life’: Shock gatecrasher at holiday Airbnb