1st Unvaccinated Rabies Survivor Goes Home

A team of physicians at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin gambled on a untried treatment and have pulled it off. A teenager who contracted rabies without being vaccinated has surrvived. No other patients or medical teams have ever pulled this off. kudos to all involved in getting her home.

WAUWATOSA, Wis. - A teenager who became the first person known to survive rabies without a vaccination went home Saturday after nearly 11 weeks in the hospital, officials said.

Jeanna Giese, 15, was infected when a bat bit her at church in September but she did not immediately seek treatment. She began showing symptoms of rabies in mid-October.

"My biggest goal when this started, when I walked through those doors downstairs, was to someday take my daughter through those doors back out, and today that gets to happen," Giese's father, John Giese, said Saturday before the family left the hospital.
Lucky

Hey, that's pretty cool! That's one thing I'd been curious about, if anyone's ever survived rabies without having had any vaccines.

That answers my question.

The big key here is she is relativly intect esp from a mantal standpoint. I ve seen kids go home before that have the IQ of a vegetable after thier "treatment" she went home and can pick up her life where she left off. Good way to start the New Year IMHO

So she just has to go through therapy, but other than that, she's fine.

Lesson learned here, though--Get bit, seek treatment ASAP.

Originally posted by FredT
The big key here is she is relativly intect esp from a mantal standpoint. I ve seen kids go home before that have the IQ of a vegetable after thier "treatment" she went home and can pick up her life where she left off. Good way to start the New Year IMHO

link to picture of her leaving hospital.

graphics.jsonline.com...

My first impression after watching the live feed while she left the hospital was she looked as if she was in a daze, but in this picture she looks much better.

Also according to the news they plan on a news conference sometime today at her home. I will update my impression once I have seen that.

Well it looks like a one of a kind case, but I guess the medical team will be keeping an eye on her for a while to see if nothing else will come out of her ordeal.

It will be a while until they doctors can detect a long lasting side effect from this.

im wondering what treatment the doctors did give her. my dog just 9 weeks old bit me and when it became infected two days later i went to the hospital. the er doc did mention rabies but then gave me antibiotics and sent me on my way with out even taking a blood sample. can they detect rabies early enough to start treatment from a blood sample..? i went back the next day because i was feeling worse. i demanded they take blood when the results came back he told me that i had a virus and he needed to culture it before he could say anything else.............im seeking a second oppinion.

Originally posted by invisiblekey
im wondering what treatment the doctors did give her. my dog just 9 weeks old bit me and when it became infected two days later i went to the hospital.

I am not sure about the exact reasons they did this, but they put her into a coma. As I understand it if you are bitten by an animal that has rabies the shots have to be started within a certain time frame. If you are past the time frame there is no known cure for rabies. Even now they are not sure it was luck or what and they plan on watching her very closely for side effects etc. It is hoped that they may have stumbled onto something, but they are not sure, only time will tell.

Just curious, did they test your dog for rabies? If not, why not? Although perhaps they know something I do not. Perhaps puppies at 9 wks old can not have them, again I am not sure about that either.