A Texas County family wants to warn others a rare disease can kill if it's not immediately treated.

Fifty-five year old Mike Reed didn't show any signs of rabies until almost a month after he was bitten by a bat.

In October, a bat flew onto Reed’s front porch in rural Texas County off Highway 17 in Houston.

Reed decided not to kill the bat but catch it and let it go. No one thought that could ultimately lead to his death.

"He tilted his head, and I think his collar hit the bat and it scared the bat and it bit his left ear lobe," Mike Reed’s daughter, Destiny Wilson, said.

Mike Reed's family never thought a bat bite would take away a man they call bigger than life.

One month after the bat bite, he got flu-like symptoms.

"Once symptoms start it's almost always fatal," Carolyn Bell, a Texas County Health Department Communicable Disease nurse, said.

Reed is the first person in Missouri to contract and die from rabies in 49 years.

"It progressed to itching and burning around his neck and ear then the tremors got really bad. By the time we induced the coma he was unaware of who most of us were," Wilson said.

When local doctors couldn't help, Reed's large family put all their hope in a Columbia, Missouri doctor who had successfully treated rabies.

"We were informed he would never be out of a vegetative state so we decided to stop treatment because my father would never want that kind of life," Wilson said.

Reed's three children find comfort in each other but struggle to write his obituary.

"I keep hoping he'll walk through the door because he's the only one who could make us feel whole," Wilson said.

The family knows that can't happen so they hope someone can learn from their father's death.

"I would hope any family who's loved one is bit by an animal they don't know will go and get the shots." Wilson said. "Don't take the risk."

Health department officials say you should avoid wild animals and unfamiliar domestic animals.

If you are bitten immediately seek medical treatment.

They say if you receive post exposure shots before symptoms set in, you can beat the disease.

Visitation for Mike Reed is 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, at Evans Funeral Home in Houston.

Services for Mike Reed are 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 5, at Ozark Baptist Church east of Houston.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to the Mike Reed Memorial Fund through Evans Funeral Home.