When one of her pipes blew out, Elizabeth Branem of Chicago needed a repairman to come to her garden apartment and make the necessary fixes. He left a hole in her ceiling and said he'd be back to close it up in a few days.
But despite her frequent complaints to the landlord and management company, Elizabeth says no one ever returned to fix her ceiling.
As time passed, she and her family could hear rats infiltrating the hole, scratching and clawing inside her home…
This went on for four years.
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In 2014, one of the rats popped out from underneath her bed and bit her right on the toe. Her foot quickly ballooned in size, marking the beginning of a five-year-long medical nightmare — all from one single bite.
According to pest control company Copesan, "Those exposed to rats carrying the [rat-bite fever] bacteria are at serious risk, even if they aren’t bitten. Rat-bite fever causes fever, vomiting, headache, muscle pain, joint pain and rash. It can be cured with treatment, but if left untreated, rat-bite fever can be fatal."
See how one rat caused Elizabeth "all of the five years of hell" — and her advice to anyone with a landlord.
