June 25th, 2014
Fort Irwin, Calif.

Soldiers training here spend two weeks in “The Box” which is the field training area.  If they need medical care, they first see a provider (usually a PA) at their battalion aid station.  For further care they are evacuated to their brigade treatment area.  After that they are evacuated to me for treatment or referral to the Emergency Department.  Tonight we had a PFC evac’d for suspected bat bite.

Along with the patient were the medical notes from the battalion and brigade medical providers.  The note from his battalion PA proved highly entertaining.  The patient denied saying anything about chupacabras, saying that was all from the PA.

The PFC was a good sport as he got endless teasing from the aid station staff about maybe turning into a vampire if bitten by a vampire bat, or maybe into a zombie if bitten by a chupacabra.  He also was a good sport about getting 15-20 injections of rabies immunoglobulin and rabies vaccine.

I’ve consulted the medical literature and can find no treatment protocols for chupacabra bites. It would seem there simply are no clinical practice guidelines for these situations.