Fond Du Lac Girl survives Rabies and Graduates!!!!

[pojo]

FOND DU LAC (WFRV) - The the first person known to survive rabies without vaccination has graduated from St. Mary's Springs High School in Fond du Lac.

17-year-old Jeanna Giese says she plans to attend Marian College at Fond du Lac in the fall.

She was bitten by a bat in September of 2004 after picking it up by its wings inside St. Patrick Catholic Church in Fond du Lac.

A team of eight specialists at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and the Medical College of Wisconsin intentionally put her in a coma, and doctors gave her an innovative cocktail of drugs. She was released from the hospital on New Year's Day, 2005.

A half dozen subsequent attempts to duplicate some form of the strategy used by the doctors in her case have failed.

Giese plans to major in biology in college, with an emphasis on zoology. Her goal is to work with large cats at a zoo.

She says the bat bite has only strengthened her desire to work with animals, which she does daily with her own pets - a rabbit, two pheasants and two dogs.

__________________________

There has been NO survivors (without vaccines) since!!!!!

[Longboardn' ASEL&S]

FOND DU LAC (WFRV) - The the first person known to survive rabies without vaccination has graduated from St. Mary's Springs High School in Fond du Lac.

Forget Frank Zappa's opinion of "Valley Girls", You Fox Valley Girls are a tough bunch!

[ragtopW]

very tough young lady Good to hear she is carrying on..

[pojo]

FOND DU LAC (WFRV) - The the first person known to survive rabies without vaccination has graduated from St. Mary's Springs High School in Fond du Lac.

Forget Frank Zappa's opinion of "Valley Girls", You Fox Valley Girls are a tough bunch!

we certainly are.

[CoronaShark]

She lives around the corner and down the street from me. Pretty amazing story.

[pojo]

She lives around the corner and down the street from me. Pretty amazing story.

you live in Fondy?!?!?

(I'm originally from Menasha)

[CoronaShark]

Yep I'm in FDL and have been for better part of 13 years or so. Grew up in Chicago burbs though.

[Caribbean Soul]

She lives around the corner and down the street from me. Pretty amazing story.

What is the story then? Why wasn't she given rabies shots at the time of her infection? Around here any contact with a bat would be treated immediately just as a precaution. When I first heard the amazing story of her survival it was never explained why she progressed to developing the disease.

[pojo]

Yep I'm in FDL and have been for better part of 13 years or so. Grew up in Chicago burbs though.

I was born and raised in the Fox Valley (Appleton, Neenah, Menasha)

[pojo]

She lives around the corner and down the street from me. Pretty amazing story.

What is the story then? Why wasn't she given rabies shots at the time of her infection? Around here any contact with a bat would be treated immediately just as a precaution. When I first heard the amazing story of her survival it was never explained why she progressed to developing the disease.

She wasn't given rabies vaccines... hence the reason for the story. Her family didn't know of the possible rabies until she was hospitalized and the doctors figured out the diagnosis.

[pair8head]

I remember reading about a boy in Montana years ago that was the first person to survive Rabies.

[pojo]

I remember reading about a boy in Montana years ago that was the first person to survive Rabies.

Was he given the vaccine? Jeanna didn't have the vaccine

[pair8head]

I remember reading about a boy in Montana years ago that was the first person to survive Rabies.

Was he given the vaccine? Jeanna didn't have the vaccine

No, If I remember what I read the only thing that they did was put him in a oxygen tent. It's been so many years ago I have no idea how I would find it again.

[pair8head]

However I did find this.

Rabies (Latin, rabies, "madness, rage, fury") is a viral zoonotic disease that causes acute encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) in mammals. In non-vaccinated humans, rabies is invariably fatal after neurological symptoms have developed, but prompt post-exposure vaccination may prevent the virus from progressing. There are only six recorded cases of a person surviving rabies without treatment.

However it is from Wikipedia so take it for what it's worth.

[Dezdmona]

Re: The Ohio guy, http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S= ... v=51s7UkF9

Another survivor who wasn't so lucky:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... A96F948260

[pojo]

Here is the story on Jeanna from Wikipedia


Jeanna Giese
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Jeanna Giese is the first person known to have survived symptomatic rabies without receiving the rabies vaccine. She is only the sixth person known to have survived rabies after the onset of symptoms; the other survivors suffered from vaccine failures.

In September 2004, Giese, then fifteen years old, picked up a bat that she found in St. Patrick's Church in her hometown of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She sustained a small bite on her left index finger, and having treated it with hydrogen peroxide, her mother decided to not seek medical attention[1]. Thirty-seven days after the bite Giese developed symptoms of rabies. She was admitted to the hospital with tremors and trouble walking. Her condition continued to deteriorate, and she was referred to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Doctors there began to suspect rabies, and their diagnosis was confirmed by laboratory tests at the Centers for Disease Control.

Rabies had been considered universally fatal in unvaccinated patients after the onset of symptoms (with treatment generally limited to palliative care), but Giese’s parents agreed to an experimental treatment proposed by her doctors at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. The doctors used drugs to put Giese into a coma with the aid of ketamine and midazolam. During the following week she was administered phenobarbital (a sedative) and she was given a cocktail of antiviral drugs (ribavirin and amantadine) while waiting for her immune system to produce antibodies to attack the virus. Giese was brought out of the coma after seven days.

After thirty-one days in the hospital, Giese was declared virus-free and removed from isolation. There was some initial concern about the level of brain damage she had suffered, but while she had suffered nerve damage, the disease seemed to have left her cognitive abilities largely intact. She spent several weeks undergoing rehabilitation therapy and was discharged on January 1, 2005. By November 2005 she was able to walk on her own, had returned to school, and had started driving automobiles.

The reasons for her survival remain controversial. Giese's doctors knew most rabies deaths were caused by temporary brain dysfunction, not permanent brain damage. They reasoned that if they protected Giese's brain by intentionally putting her into a coma, she would survive long enough for her body to fight off the virus. While the treatment appears to have worked as planned, other rabies researchers suggest Giese might have been infected with a particularly weak form of the virus, or that she might have an unusually strong immune system. The bat that bit Giese was not recovered for testing, and doctors were unable to isolate the virus from her body.

At least six later attempts to cure symptomatic rabies using a similar medical protocol have been unsuccessful. In May 2006, doctors at the Texas Children's Hospital applied a similar treatment as used on Giese to Zachary Jones, a 16 year-old stricken with symptomatic rabies, but they were unable to save him. From early October to early November of 2006, 10-year old Shannon Carroll was also unsuccessfully treated. This protocol is commonly being referred to as the "'Jeanna' Treatment," at the Springs. An article written by her primary care physician in the April 2007 Scientific American calls this the Milwaukee protocol[1]; he indicates that those who attempted to follow this protocol actually violated it, failing to use the combination of drugs he first described.

Jeanna Giese returned to school, and with the extra help of teachers, was able to complete her sophomore year with her class. Despite the obvious setback, she kept at the same level as the rest of her classmates. She graduated high school with honors in May 2007. She expressed her intention to become a veterinarian after graduating, and is planning to attend Marian College. [1][2]

[pojo]

Re: The Ohio guy, http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S= ... v=51s7UkF9

Another survivor who wasn't so lucky:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... A96F948260

Dez... I don't know how much trust WBAY has anymore with people in NE Wis... they have literally lied on air on numerous occasions... and have been busted for it.