June 3, 2007

"There will always be a tomorrow, whether on this Earth or not."

Says Jeanna Giese, the Wisconsin girl who survived rabies. She just went to the prom and graduated from high school.
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....

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.....

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.
Beautiful. Great perspective. She hasn't turned against the animals (or, I assume, from the church).

5 comments:

ricpic said...

And another bats in the belfry quote:

"Tomorrow is another day."

Tim said...

This really is an amazing story.

Thanks for pointing it out.

Dust Bunny Queen 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."

This quote is wonderful. It also sums up my husband's philosophy. He also had a near death experience. He had a bleeding ulcer with no symptoms and lost almost all of his blood before being brought to the hospital and receiving massive transfusions.

A near death experience puts things into a perspective that those of us who lead such comfortable easy lives will never know. He said it made him a better person who appreciates life and who is not afraid to die.

Sounds like Damien has discovered this and at such a young age! I consider her extremely lucky to have lived AND to now have this revelation about life that she can implement for the rest of remaining years.

Terri said...

Tim McGraw has a great song about this. Best line:

Someday I hope you get the chance

To live like you were dying.

Anthony said...

I was at the Mass when that happened and I still kick myself for not havin g known enough to keep people away from that damn bat. But then, I didn't know you could get rabies from handling a rabid animal (I thought there had to be broken skin).