Statistically dead
Jeanna Giese survives rabies
Jim Giese
Issue date: 3/11/10 Section: Features
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Jeanna has garnered worldwide attention since she was bitten by a rabid bat in September of 2004. Fortunately, this awareness stems from the fact that she has earned the title of being the first person ever to survive rabies without being vaccinated.
Jeanna encountered the bat while attending church in her hometown of Fond du Lac. She was bitten by the bat when she picked it up to remove the animal from the building. "I knew the bat bit me. Not only did I see it sink its fangs in, it's pretty hard to miss that amount of pain. It felt like a needle being stabbed into your finger and then injecting something. I almost screamed, but held it in because two kids were playing nearby."
She was not aware of any potential problems until about four weeks later. "At first I was just really tired," said Jeanna. Then the symptoms escalated. "At my last volleyball game I got double vision and then I went home and I was just throwing up. It was like a really horrible flu."
In the days following the volleyball game her condition quickly worsened and her mother made the decision to take her to the emergency room. "When I went into the ER the first time and saw a neurologist and we told him about the bat bite, he looked at my finger and saw that it had healed. He said it was nothing to worry about."
While in the hospital in Fond du Lac, Jeanna was tested for a wide range of potential illnesses, including meningitis and Lyme's disease. After the results all came back negative for other potential illnesses, she was transferred to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
While at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Jeanna's mother told the doctor about the bat bite. The doctor quickly ran the blood work to test for rabies and once the results came back the family received the disheartening prognosis. "When they tested me [for rabies] and it came back positive, they told my parents that I had four hours to live at most," said Jeanna.
According to Jeanna, once the actuality of the diagnosis was realized, the options were limited. She was either going to die or the doctor could try a previously unused treatment.
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