> At first, an emergency clinic prescribed the boy antiviral medication used to treat infections caused by herpes viruses as they presumed he might have Bell's palsy, the temporary paralysis of facial muscles on one side of the face.

> Then he went to hospital on back-to-back visits, first getting a presumed diagnosis of herpes gingivostomatitis, a viral infection of the mouth and gums, then returning the following day after the right side of his face went weak, the journal states.

I know the timeline could not be accurate, but if they mentioned what happened with the bat why wasn’t rabies the very first thing they tested for? Even if the parents visited a clinic right after the fact I fear this would have ended up the same way, unfortunately, especially because rabies symptoms show up after some time

I don't think they told the hospital about the bat. Probably didn't cross their mind of the reason it was happening unfortunately.

If the hospital knew he came in contact with a wild animal they would have put him on the rabies vaccine regardless of any sort of rabies testing.

The only way to verify the presence of rabies is to bring in the animal that did the bite. But per the article, they released the responsible bat. Normally what you'd do in this case is the hospital gives you the rabies vaccine anyway just in case, because the alternative is if the animal was rabid, you die.

Bats are the most common carriers of rabies, and also you should watch out for any wild animal that's too comfortable getting close to a human. Especially more shy ones like raccoons and such.