Jeanna Giese, 17, works at a petting zoo and will pursue a zoology major at Marian College.
Posted on 06/03/2007 4:04:33 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
(Two years after amazing recovery, Fond du Lac girl is graduating today)
Fond du Lac, WI - Jeanna Giese stood in the middle of the atrium at Marian College, nervously twisting a sparkly ring and frequently touching a blue bracelet that symbolized her miraculous recovery from rabies.
As she cycled between anticipation of her date's arrival and fear that he might not show up, it was hard to believe that doctors once questioned whether the teen would be able to return to school - let alone recover enough to dance with friends at her senior prom or graduate on time from high school today.But Jeanna Giese has not let her past define her. Instead, she's paving a path for her future.
For Giese, the months she spent recovering from rabies are "old news." It's a period in her life that has come and gone, changing her in subtle physical ways. She still walks a little unsteadily and speaks more slowly than she used to. And she's chosen to attend college close to home to stay near her family, which never lost faith as she battled a deadly disease.
But for Rodney Willoughby, the doctor who knew almost nothing about rabies before Giese showed up at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, the period of treatment has defined him. As one of the leading experts on the disease, he now consults with doctors from around the world about rabies treatment.
So as doctors continue to figure out how to replicate their results from the past, Giese has moved forward and created her own life - one that still involves animals, despite her life almost being ended by a bat.
And today, as she walks across the stage in the St. Mary's Springs gym to receive her high school diploma, she may stagger slightly, but there will be no doubt that the young woman on the stage is ready for any challenge.
"I don't really think of my body as being in recovery, because it has recovered," said Giese, now a strikingly mature 17-year-old.
"I tell (people about the bite) if they ask, or if I need to explain why I can't do something," she said. "Otherwise I live and let them figure it out."
A miraculous recovery
Jeanna's recovery remains a mystery.
On Sept. 12, 2004, the then-15-year-old was bitten by a bat after picking it up by its wings inside St. Patrick Catholic Church in Fond du Lac. Though Giese didn't receive medical treatment right away, her mother, Ann Giese, thoroughly washed the small wound on her left index finger with peroxide.
More than a month later, Giese was admitted to Children's Hospital with a fever of 102 degrees, double vision, slurred speech and jerking in her left arm. She was diagnosed with rabies Oct. 19.
A team of eight specialists at Children's Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin intentionally put her in a coma, with her parents' consent. Doctors gave her an innovative cocktail of drugs, including ketamine, midazolam, ribavirin and amantadine to fight the virus running through her body.She was never given a rabies vaccine because it is considered ineffective once clinical symptoms develop. In November, Giese was declared the first person in the world to survive rabies without prior vaccination, and she was released from the hospital Jan. 1, 2005.
"I always get flashbacks of the day she was bitten," said Colleen Deitte, 19, who's known Giese since sixth grade. "Every time, I cry and get sad, but then I get thankful that she's OK and that she made it through those issues. Every time, I think that she could have died, but she was the one that didn't. I think about it often to be able to appreciate our friendship and appreciate that God works in mysterious ways."
Since Giese's miraculous survival in 2004, there have been six attempts to duplicate some form of the strategy used by the doctors at Children's Hospital. All have failed.
Closer to a cure
Still, Willoughby said each new case has provided additional details about the illness. Patients are now living two times longer than expected, and doctors are now able to anticipate new complications, including stroke and vitamin deficiency, during treatment.
"You have to have a certain amount of faith that these things will work because they make sense," he said. "As I've now worked for three years, everything I've read makes it more clear that this will work. And the more I dig, the clearer it becomes."
Willoughby has file cabinets filled with rabies research papers, relying on them when a new case comes up. With each call, he gives up about a month of his time. During a case last year involving a 10-year-old Indiana girl, he was in Brazil on business but consulted with the Indianapolis doctors daily.
Willoughby said that only two cases have closely followed the protocol used with Giese, but that he still has hope the strategy used will work again.
"You need to try enough times to determine that something really doesn't work."
To Willoughby, that means at least 10 to 20 attempts.
Meanwhile, Giese periodically checks in and gives Willoughby a little bit more incentive to continue his work.
"I've only seen her socially, but every time I see her she's better than the last time," he said.
"I'm just amazed at her progress," said Charles Rupprecht, chief of the rabies unit at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who saw Giese this spring. "She's just one of a kind."
Planning a future
Giese received her driver's license last year and got a Ford Ranger in her favorite color, blue. In addition to working at a petting zoo in summer and hanging out with friends, she's hoping to learn to drive horses around for showings.
In the fall, she will be a freshman at Marian College, where she plans to major in biology with an emphasis on zoology. Her goal is to work with large cats at a zoo.
Giese says the bat bite has only strengthened her desire to work with animals, which she does daily with her own pets - Pepper the rabbit, pheasants Chicken and Duckie, dogs Maggie and Peanut. If she has her way, she'll soon have a goat and baby duck.
However, she still can't bring herself to read the journal her mom kept to document what happened as doctors tried their novel rabies treatment.
"I started reading it when I first got home, but it was too hard emotionally for me," she said. "I haven't had time to read it now; I'm waiting for the book to come out." Back at the prom at Marian College, Giese hugged her date, Evan Helmeid, closely as they danced slowly to "Lips of an Angel" by Hinder. Her arm around his neck and his around her waist, they stared into each other's eyes and smiled shyly. Deitte and another friend, Becky Immel, stood nearby.
Later, Giese reflected on the prom's theme, "Tomorrow Never Dies."
"There will always be a tomorrow, whether on this Earth or not," Giese said. "You will always have friends to laugh and cry with and always someone who cares. Don't forget what's past, don't quit living the present, and don't stop looking ahead."
Jeanna Giese, 17, works at a petting zoo and will pursue a zoology major at Marian College.
I’m very happy for her, but she needs to find a boy to kiss. Yuck!
Her goal is to work with large cats at a zoo.
_________________________________________
Can’t help but wonder - is she immune to rabies now?
Mrs VS
Our daughter Susan was bitten by a dog that took off. She had to receive the series of shots. We teased her about getting her rabies tags in the mail.
She’s immune now. A medical miracle — I had heard of several other rabies survivors but had not known that every single one of them had received a vaccine before symptoms appeared (meaning that their illness could be regarded as a vaccine failure).
It is very surprising that neither this girl nor her mother knew that when you get bitten by a bat it is absolutely mandatory to get rabies shots ASAP. We had a bat fly into our house while we were asleep, and we had to get shots just in case it had dropped saliva on us, even if it hadn’t bitten us.
I feel great for her!
Except for the part about the Ford Ranger. What a drag to buy a ticking time dump.
It’s also possible to contract rabies by breathing vapor inside bat-infested caves. See also the Marburg Virus topic of this week.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.