A Chicago tenant suffered rat bites to his face while sleeping in his apartment after months of unanswered complaints about a severe rodent infestation in his building. The attack left him requiring rabies treatment and antibiotics, with lasting eye irritation from the injuries.
Night Attack Leaves Tenant Injured
Heriverto Hernandez told Fox32 he returned home exhausted from work and fell asleep in his garden-level Rogers Park apartment when he felt movement on his face around 3 a.m. The tenant threw the rats off his face after waking to find them gnawing on him. Medical photographs documented his swollen eye and multiple cuts across his forehead from the rodent attack.
Hernandez sought immediate medical attention following the incident, receiving a rabies vaccination and antibiotic treatment. Three weeks after the attack, his eye remains irritated from the injuries sustained during the nighttime assault. The tenant is one of dozens in the building who belong to Fuerzas Activas de la Damen, a tenant union affiliated with the All-Chicago Tenant Alliance.
Management Disputes Responsibility Claims
ARK Management, the property management company, stated they have invested over $1.5 million in building improvements since March 2025 and renovated more than 20 units. The company disclosed that Hernandez faces eviction proceedings for eight months of unpaid rent and has declined multiple offers to relocate to newly renovated apartments. Management claimed their biggest challenge has been communication difficulties with certain tenants, creating delays in resolving maintenance problems.
The company emphasized they take tenant health and safety allegations extremely seriously. Jake Marshall-Braun, an attorney representing tenants in ongoing litigation, countered that landlords maintain responsibility for safe living conditions regardless of rent payment status or eviction proceedings. The tenant union claims rats and cockroaches infest multiple units throughout the complex, with maintenance concerns remaining unaddressed by building management.
Growing Urban Rodent Crisis
Recent studies indicate urban rats and mice are developing immunity to common pesticides and learning to avoid deadly traps, presenting new challenges for city pest control efforts. Scientists warn that continued reliance on rodenticides may harm other urban wildlife not targeted by the poison. The Rogers Park incident highlights the serious health risks posed by inadequate rodent control in residential buildings, particularly for working tenants who may be vulnerable while sleeping.
Rodents do not carry rabies
As you say-But to be sure the Rabies protocol is best to be sure.You don’t know if that rat has been gnawing on dead animals or human body parts thrown in the trash at Abortion sites.
All warm-blooded animals can carry rabies. The exception is the opossum, because its body temperature is too low for the rabies virus to take hold.
They shouldn’t put the word “suffers” after “rabies treatment”; he suffered a rodent attack and had to get a rabies shot and antibiotics. It’s like one time when I was in grade school, when a gopher showed up on the playground and some kid(s) were playing with it or something, and may have gotten bitten. This was back in the 60s, so I’ve forgotten some of the details. Anyway, I remember our principal coming to our classroom and saying that if we knew anyone who had been bitten or scratched by the gopher, to let them know, and he emphasized that any person who had been bitten or scratched would have to undergo a very painful series of rabies shots, emphasis on the words “very painful”. Yeah, like everybody was going to step up and admit the gopher bit then after an announcement like that!
When my older sister was alive, she worked as a vet tech and twice in her career she was badly bitten by a cat. She had to go partway through the rabies series before they found out the first cat wasn’t rabid, and another time she had to go through the entire series because the second cat that had bitten her was rabid. Keep your pets vaccinated, folks!