I was the first person in the world to survive rabies without a vaccine – after being bitten by a bat in a church in Wisconsin

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

This year marks 20 years since Jeanna Giese was bitten by a bat while carrying it out of her local church in Wisconsin, USA, where the bat had flown in and disrupted a service.

There was no blood, and the wound on her left index finger was so small that it was barely visible, so she didn’t think much about it.

But three weeks later, the then fifteen-year-old became so tired that she could no longer get out of bed, started vomiting and had double vision.

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

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

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

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

Ms Giese was kept in a coma for two weeks to give her immune system time to fight off rabies – which worked miraculously.

After spending two years in recovery, where she learned to walk and talk again, Ms. Giese married and became the mother of three children.

She revealed her life after the infection in 2004 CBS7: ‘It’s almost surreal to think, you know, 20 years. My life changed completely when I became ill.’

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

Rabies is almost 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 were trying to break.

They placed her in a medically induced coma to suppress brain activity and prevent this deadly build-up of inflammation.

This method is now known as the ‘Milwaukee Method’ and has since been used to save at least two other patients – including then-eight-year-old Precious Reynolds who was scratched by a rabies-infected stray cat in 2011.

On the day her life changed, Ms. Giese went to church to retrieve a bat that flew around during the service before being knocked down.

However, as the animal lover carried it outside, the animal bent over and sank its teeth into the third index finger of her left hand.

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

Ms Giese was in an induced coma for two weeks, but when she returned she felt ‘like a baby’ and had to relearn how to walk, talk and care for herself for two years

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

Ms Giese said doctors had warned that when she underwent the treatment there was a risk she would end up ‘like a vegetable’.

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

But three weeks later, Ms. Giese suddenly became so tired that she could not get out of bed, saw double and began vomiting frequently.

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

She was then taken to Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where doctors “went white” when her parents said she had suffered a bat bite about a month ago. Samples were sent to the CDC for testing, which quickly revealed she had rabies.

Dr. Rodney Willoughby, a pediatrician at the hospital who specializes in infectious diseases, said: ‘Well, I thought she was going to die.

“They all did, that was about the extent of my knowledge of rabies at the time, that there wasn’t much to do. It really is 100 percent deadly.”

At that point, Dr. Willoughby suggested testing something never tried before, with the parents saying yes – eager to save their daughter.

She was kept in a coma for fourteen days and when she woke up the virus was gone, but she felt like a ‘newborn baby’ and had to learn everything again.

Ms Giese added: ‘I was basically a newborn baby at 15 years old. I couldn’t do anything.

‘The road to recovery was very long and painful. (But) I didn’t stop. I think it’s personal stubbornness.’

Mrs. Giese now also works in a children’s museum (photo). She reveals her story to raise awareness of rabies treatments for people who don’t have a vaccine

Ms. Giese retold her story twenty years after her first encounter with the disease

Dr. Rodney Willoughby, pictured, proposed the experimental method to treat the disease

Mrs. Giese remained in the hospital for another nine weeks and then underwent two years of outpatient therapy. Learning to walk again took two months.

At the time, she quickly became a worldwide news sensation as the first person to ever survive rabies.

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

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

Mrs. Giese is now raising her family and also works at the Children’s Museum of Fond du Lac in central Wisconsin.

Talking about her experiences The guard 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 vaccination.

“I’m thrilled to know that I helped pave the way for that change.”