20 years later, Fond du Lac woman reflects on being 1st to survive rabies without vaccine – Fox11online.com

FOND DU LAC (WMTV) -- A woman in Fond du Lac who survived a harrowing brush with death is celebrating a major milestone this year. Twenty years ago, she became the first person in the world to survive rabies without receiving the life-saving vaccine.

Its almost surreal to think, you know, 20 years, said Jeanna Giese. My life changed completely when I got sick,

Back in 2004 in Fond du Lac, Giese was 15 years old. She attended church with her mother on a Sunday morning. Suddenly, a bat was spotted flying around during the service.

It flew to the back of the church and one of the ushers swatted it down, said Giese. Being an animal lover, Giese asked her mother if she could pick the bat up and take it outside. Her mother agreed.

As she was about to place the bat into a tree, Gieses life changed forever.

It did manage to stretch over and bite me in the finger and that hurt. I always get asked Did it hurt? Did you feel it? Yeah, I felt it. It hurt a lot.

Giese says she pulled the bats fang out of her left index finger. The mark on her finger was almost microscopic. She wasnt bleeding because there wasnt an open wound. Giese and her mother cleaned her finger with hydrogen peroxide and went on with their lives.

But about three weeks later, Giese began to feel extremely lethargic and nauseous.

I woke up and I could not get out of bed, my face was flush, I could hardly move, said Giese.

Her parents took her to St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac. Doctors tested for meningitis and Lyme Disease, among others. Everything came back negative. Doctors were stumped as to why Giese was so sick. As her condition continued to get worse, the decision was made to transfer her to Childrens Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa.

This was actually the second time I was on call here, I knew nobody, said Dr. Rodney Willoughby. Dr. Willoughby was a pediatric doctor specializing in infectious diseases when he first met Giese. He was brand new at Childrens Hospital.

Dr. Willoughby sent samples to the Centers for Disease Control in Georgia and the diagnosis was confirmed. Giese had rabies.

Well, I thought she was going to die, said Dr. Willoughby. Thats what they all did. Thats about the extent of my knowledge of rabies at the time was that there wasnt much to do. Its really 100% fatal.

Dr. Willoughby says as this point, it was too late to administer the life-saving rabies vaccine.

The classic, conventional rabies vaccine has never failed since its introduction in the United States in the 1970s, explained Dr. Willoughby. Its probably our most efficacious and effective vaccine although fortunately, we dont have to use it often.

At this point, doctors hit a crossroads. Giese says doctors told her parents that she would either die in the hospital or they could take her home so she could die there. But Dr. Willoughby wasnt ready to give up just yet. He decided to try something experimental.

Whenever you improvise, the odds are against you, so you always worry, he said.

Dr. Willoughby decided to put Giese in a medically induced coma, a move never attempted before with a patient suffering from rabies.

He kind of came up with this idea to put me into a coma to kind of separate my brain and my body and let my own immune system fight off the virus, said Giese.

Most rabies patients die because the brain over-stimulates the heart and causes it to stop. So, the idea that we could just suppress the brain so it couldnt work as hard and so that it didnt stop the body from living -- that seemed like a reasonable idea and almost seemed too obvious, added Dr. Willoughby.

Giese laid in a coma for the next 14 days.

They didnt know if I woke up, if I was going to be me or a vegetable or anything, said Giese.

But then Giese slowly began to wake up.

He said Look over at your mom and I moved my eyes and thats when they were like Shes in there, Giese said.

Giese eventually started to move her arms and attempted to talk.

I was basically a newborn baby at the age of 15. I couldnt do anything, said Giese.

I mean, we made a lot of progress, said Dr. Willoughby. We had no idea how she was going to come out of it. We had no idea what the complications were.

Over the next few weeks and months, Giese slowly started to regain control of her life. She re-learned how to walk and underwent strenuous physical, occupational, and speech therapy.

The road to recovery was very long and painful. I dont quit. I guess its personal stubbornness, Giese said with a laugh.

Giese is now known the world over as a medical marvel. She is the first person on record to survive rabies without getting the vaccine.

Local media has covered her story extensively, including when she graduated from high school and when she became a mother. Today, she works at the Childrens Museum of Fond du Lac and is the proud mother of three children.

I always wanted to be a mom and now I am one and its just fantastic. I love my kids so much, she said.

According to Dr. Willoughby, there are just 45 known survivors of rabies. He says 18 of those survivors are from whats now called the Milwaukee Protocol.

Shes done very thing that youd want for any of your patients, so its just a total delight, said Dr. Willoughby.

All these years later, Giese is still an animal lover. Even bats. But spiders are where she draws the line.

A lot of people are astonished that I actually love bats! Giese laughed.

Shes been open about sharing her story in the hopes that she can inspire someone else who may be facing impossible odds.

I never gave up. I always wanted to try. Find that thing you believe in and never let it go, she said.

Rabies in the United States is pretty rare. The CDC says this can because of successful pet vaccination and animal control programs and public health surveillance and testing.

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20 years later, Fond du Lac woman reflects on being 1st to survive rabies without vaccine - Fox11online.com