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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
 Posted - 11/25/2004 : 07:19:47
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According to today's New York Times, "a Wisconsin teenager is the first human ever to survive rabies without vaccination." (The whole story is here, but you'll need to register (it's free) to read it.)
She came to doctors over a month after being bitten by a bat in church. Because the rabies case was so advanced, doctors tried a radical new approach that appears to have saved her. However, because they aren't sure just what cured her, the doctors were cautious: quote:
"You have to see this therapy repeated successfully in another patient," said Dr. Rodney Willoughby, the associate professor of pediatrics who prescribed the cocktail of medicines for the sick girl, Jeanna Giese, 15. "Until then, it is a miracle."
Ugh.
As expected, the parents of the girl are all too eager to give credit to the supernatural: quote:
Her father, John Giese, said he was grateful to the doctors and their novel treatment, but added that prayer had made the crucial difference. "The day after we found out, I called on everyone we knew for prayer," he told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week. "We believe a lot of that snowballed and it really made a difference."
I guess all those other people who have regularly died from illness, disease and infection didn't pray enough, eh?
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Wendy
SFN Regular
USA
614 Posts |
 Posted - 11/25/2004 : 09:22:01 [Permalink]
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| I read the article hoping it would include the parents' reasons for waiting so long to take their daughter to the doctor. Apparently they're just dumbasses. That the bat bit the child at all should have tipped them off to the fact it was probably rabid. |
Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon.
-- Susan Ertz
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satans_mom
Skeptic Friend
USA
148 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2004 : 09:28:25 [Permalink]
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| Perhaps because they thought that since the bat was *inside* of the church, it was surely blessed with God's holy sanctimony. It was a Christian bat, therefore, it would cause no harm to the girl. |
Yo mama's so fat, she's on both sides of the family.
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2004 : 11:37:22 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Wendy
I read the article hoping it would include the parents' reasons for waiting so long to take their daughter to the doctor. Apparently they're just dumbasses. That the bat bit the child at all should have tipped them off to the fact it was probably rabid.
Right. I can't imagine that any encounter with a bat wherein blood is drawn wouldn't immediately suggest to the parents that they take the kid to a doctor, if only as a precaution.
Perhaps they didn't have health insurance... |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2004 : 13:01:29 [Permalink]
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| Though the doctor's little cocktail saved the day (and the girl), and this is an important step in medicine(!), a part of me is lamenting the fact that a Darwin Award couldn't be nominated. If stupidity is indeed a heritable trait, it may now have been passed to the next generation. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2004 : 14:53:24 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
As expected, the parents of the girl are all too eager to give credit to the supernatural: quote:
Her father, John Giese, said he was grateful to the doctors and their novel treatment, but added that prayer had made the crucial difference. "The day after we found out, I called on everyone we knew for prayer," he told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week. "We believe a lot of that snowballed and it really made a difference."
I guess all those other people who have regularly died from illness, disease and infection didn't pray enough, eh?
I want a job like the xian god, "All the credit, none of the blame." If she had died it would have been god's will, and not the malevolent nature of their omnipotent creator. I suspose it's just too uncomfortable for many to try to think outside the book. |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2004 : 14:57:07 [Permalink]
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Y'all have pretty much said it all. I can only add that any bat, in this country, found on the ground or even approching people can be assumed to be rabid. I've been called upon to deal with three over the years, all little brown bats if you must know. All tested positive for rabies.
Do not ever mess with a bat nor any wild mammal that will approach you! They are all very cute and cuddly and can give you a particularly nasty death.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 11/27/2004 : 03:20:38 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
quote:
Originally posted by Wendy
I read the article hoping it would include the parents' reasons for waiting so long to take their daughter to the doctor. Apparently they're just dumbasses. That the bat bit the child at all should have tipped them off to the fact it was probably rabid.
Right. I can't imagine that any encounter with a bat wherein blood is drawn wouldn't immediately suggest to the parents that they take the kid to a doctor, if only as a precaution.
Perhaps they didn't have health insurance...
Don't be too judgmental. The paper may have it wrong. We had 2 rabies deaths in this state. One case involved a bat being found in the kids bedroom but it didn't appear to have bitten the kid. That is not an uncommon scenario.
Recently, a person I work with had to get her son rabies shots and her dog and cat had to be quarantined 90 days. The dog found and brought a dead bat in the house and the son picked it up to throw it out. If I hadn't said she needed to go to the health department right away, she really wouldn't have known that was an exposure. It turned out the cat had brought a dead bat in a week or so earlier as well. The animals' rabies shots weren't up to date but they had had them in the past. If they hadn't, the animals would have been destroyed. The bat tested positive. In addition, there were several other cases that were similar so the health department put out a notice to all clinics that there had been a rash of infected bats recently.
Anyway, bite or not, lots of people just totally underestimate the risk. I know about rabies in bats but a lot of folks think more of dog bites. Do you think anyone bit by a raccoon would know they need rabies shots? |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 11/27/2004 : 08:39:58 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal
Don't be too judgmental. The paper may have it wrong. We had 2 rabies deaths in this state. One case involved a bat being found in the kids bedroom but it didn't appear to have bitten the kid. That is not an uncommon scenario.
Recently, a person I work with had to get her son rabies shots and her dog and cat had to be quarantined 90 days. The dog found and brought a dead bat in the house and the son picked it up to throw it out. If I hadn't said she needed to go to the health department right away, she really wouldn't have known that was an exposure.
I guess this was my point. In general, if you (or your kid) has had a close encounter with any sort of wild animal-- especially small animals like bats where a bit might go unnoticed-- you should see a doctor if only as a precaution. As the article noted, this girl's survival is the only known case of rabies not being fatal without the shots. If I had a little girl ahd she were close enough to the bad to touch it, we'd be at the doctor's within 36 hours. |
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