Heather Swain: The last hours of a rabid woman
The Story Collider
Story Collider, Inc.
4.4 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 11 November 2012
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Heather Swain is told she has rabies, that turns out to be the least strange part of her experience. "Who wants to grow up saying their mother died of rabies, like I was a raccoon?"
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A science story, huh? |
| 0:04.0 | Is NYU scientist the... |
| 0:06.0 | It felt... |
| 0:07.0 | I felt... |
| 0:08.0 | I was so... |
| 0:09.0 | And I just thought, well... |
| 0:10.0 | It was that golden moment. |
| 0:12.0 | Because science was on my side. |
| 0:15.0 | Hey, everyone. I'm Ben Lilly, and welcome to the Story Collider, |
| 0:26.7 | where we bring you true stories of how science has affected people's lives. |
| 0:30.5 | This week's storyteller is Heather Swain. |
| 0:33.4 | The story was recorded in February 2012 at Union Hall in Brooklyn. |
| 0:38.2 | The theme of the event was Brains. |
| 0:48.6 | On the fourth day that I was in the hospital, Dr. Morano blustered into my room and he pointed at me and he said, |
| 0:57.0 | nobody knows what's wrong with you, but I'm going to figure it out. |
| 1:01.0 | And for the first time in about eight months, I felt hopeful that maybe I'd found someone who could tell me what had gone wrong in my body. |
| 1:09.0 | So Dr. Morano sat down beside me and he said, now tell me what's been going on. |
| 1:14.8 | I had gotten sick back in the spring. |
| 1:17.2 | At first I thought I just had the flu because I had a high fever and this sickening chill |
| 1:22.0 | that left my whole body aching, especially my elbows and knees and the little joints in my fingers and toes. |
| 1:29.9 | And I was extraordinarily tired. |
| 1:32.3 | But after about 10 days with these symptoms and no others, I drug myself to the doctor. |
... |
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