An Australian who died after being bitten by a bat has been identified, with his devastated wife now raising questions about how the situation took such a tragic turn, despite him receiving treatment.

Craig Nolte, who was a carpenter, was reportedly trying to free a bat that had flown onto his balcony when he was bitten on the finger in November 2024.

The 56-year-old, from Ballina in northern NSW, received treatment after the incident, but he later fell into a critical condition, according to NSW Health.

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Mr Nolte’s wife, Robyn, is now scratching her head over how her husband’s health changed so dramatically, claiming he was given the immunoglobulin rabies vaccine that “didn’t work”.

The vaccine is a crucial component of post-exposure prophylaxis for rabies, preventing infection caused by the virus.

Mrs Nolte took to social media to pay tribute to her husband and express her frustration over having few answers around why the vaccine wasn’t effective.

“I need to put this out to the community as Craig, Zebbo, was a local and having owned Ballina kiddi care childcare for 18 years, we knew a lot of families,” she wrote.

“Before anyone says anything, yes, 8 months ago Craig got bitten and he got the post-exposure prophylaxis injections.

“NSW health still grappling in their words to how this happened, that the injection didn’t work.

“RIP my love, my best friend.”

Extensive exposure wounds close to innervated areas like fingers carry increased infection risk, resulting in a shorter incubation period of the lyssavirus, medical advice says.

The father-of-two was the first confirmed human case of lyssavirus in NSW and only the fourth in the country.

Lyssavirus infections are extremely rare but deadly.

The disease causes severe neurological symptoms similar to rabies and is almost always fatal once symptoms appear.