I was the first person in the world to survive RABIES without a vaccine

Release time：2024-06-03 20:52:22 Source：International Image news portal

A Wisconsin woman who made history after becoming the first person in the world to survive rabies without a vaccine says it is 'surreal' she is still around today.

It was 20 years ago this year that Jeanna Giese was bitten by a bat as she carried it out of her local church in Wisconsin, US, where it had flown in and disrupted a service.

There was no blood and the wound on her left index finger was so tiny it was barely visible, so she didn't think much of it.

But three weeks later, the then 15-year-old became so tired she couldn't get out of bed, and began vomiting and seeing double-vision.

Doctors diagnosed her with rabies, a disease with a 99 percent kill rate, saying the schoolgirl had only days left because she had missed the 72-hour window for the vaccine to be administered.

Jeanna Giese was 15 years old when she was bitten by a rabid bat at church. She said the bite was microscopic but, within three weeks, led to her seeing double-vision and ending up in an induced coma in hospital

Ms Giese survived after doctors tried something on her that had never been attempted before. In 2014, ten years after the bite in 2004, she married Scot Frassetto

The couple first had twins, Carly and Connor, and then a baby boy named Tristan

But then her doctor suggested they try something that had never been done before to treat the virus. 

Ms Giese was placed in a two-week coma to give her immune system time to fight rabies — which, miraculously, worked.

After spending two years in recovery where she learned to walk and talk again, Ms Giese went on to marry and become a mother of three.

Revealing her life following the infection in 2004, she told CBS7: 'It's almost surreal to think, ya know, 20 years. My life changed completely when I got sick.'

About 60,000 Americans are bitten by potentially rabid animals every year, which is considered a death sentence if someone doesn't get the vaccine within 72 hours.

Rabies is nearly always fatal because it spreads to the brain where it causes inflammation that destroys brain cells.

But in Ms Giese's case this was exactly the cycle doctors tried to break.

They placed her into an induced coma to suppress brain activity and prevent this deadly build-up of inflammation.

Now known as the 'Milwaukee Method', it has since been used to save at least two other patients — including then eight-year-old Precious Reynolds who was scratched by a rabies-infested stray cat in 2011.

On the day that changed her life, Ms Giese went to pick up a bat in church that had been flying around during the service before being swatted down.

While the animal-lover was carrying it outside, however, the animal reached over and sink its fangs into her third index finger on her left hand.

There was some blood and it 'hurt a lot', Ms Giese said, but once they cleaned the wound the mark was virtually microscopic.

Ms Giese was in an induced coma for two weeks, but when she came back she was 'like a baby' and had to spend two years relearning how to walk, talk and care for herself

She is pictured above in a wheelchair during her recovery process at home in Wisconsin

Ms Giese said doctors had warned that when she went into the treatment there was a risk she could end up 'like a vegetable'

Her mother cleaned the wound with hydrogen peroxide — an antiseptic — and then the family moved on with their lives.

But three weeks later, Ms Giese suddenly became so tired she couldn't get out of bed, had double vision and started vomiting regularly.

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Her parents rushed her to a nearby hospital, where doctors tested her for a range of diseases — including meningitis and Lyme disease — but all came back negative.

She was then transferred to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where doctors 'turned white' when her parents said she had a bat bite about a month ago. Samples were sent to the CDC for testing which quickly revealed that she had rabies.

Dr Rodney Willoughby, a pediatric physician at the hospital specializing in infectious diseases, said: 'Well, I thought she was going to die.

'That's what they all did, that's about the extent of my knowledge of rabies at the time was that there wasn't much to do. It's really 100 percent fatal.'

It was then that Dr Willoughby suggested testing something that had never been tried before, with the parents saying yes — eager to save their daughter.

She was placed in a coma for 14 days, and when she woke up the virus was gone but she was like a 'newborn baby' and had to relearn everything again.

Ms Giese added: 'I was basically a newborn baby at the age of 15. I couldn't do anything.

'The road to recovery was very long and painful. [But] I didn't quit. I guess it's personal stubbornness.'

Ms Giese now also works at a Children's Museum (pictured). She reveals her story to raise awareness of treatments for rabies for those who haven't got a vaccine

Ms Giese revealed her story again 20 years after her first brush with the disease

Dr Rodney Willoughby, pictured, suggested the experimental method to treat the disease

Ms Giese was in hospital for another nine weeks and then spent two years attending outpatient therapy. Learning to walk again took two months.

At the time, she quickly became a global news sensation as the first person to have ever survived rabies.

She then went back to school before graduating and, in 2014, married her husband Scot Frassetto.

The pair had twins in March 2016, named Carly and Connor, and then a baby boy in 2018, named Tristan.

Ms Giese is now raising her family while also working at the Children's Museum of Fond du Lac in central Wisconsin.

Speaking about her experience to The Guardian late last year, she added: 'A few other people have since recovered from rabies using the same method.

'While not every case has had the same positive outcome, it is incredible that there is now a chance of surviving a disease once considered fatal without a vaccination.

'I am overjoyed to know that I helped pave the way for that change.'

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