Human Rabies Cases: How It Kills and Who Survived
REDRUM true crime
redrumpodcast
4.6 • 533 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rabies is one of the deadliest viruses on Earth, with a fatality rate that is almost 100% once symptoms begin, a disease that can lie dormant for weeks or even months before suddenly, and violently, taking over the brain, leaving doctors with almost no way to stop what comes next.
In this episode, we explore the real-life case of Yvonne Ford, a 59 year old grandmother from Barnsley, whose life changed after what seemed like nothing more than a minor scratch from a puppy while on holiday, an injury so small it didn’t even bleed. Months later she developed devastating neurological symptoms that would escalate rapidly, leading to her death in just a matter of days.
But her story is only one side of rabies.
Because in extremely rare cases, the outcome is different.
We also examine the case of Jeanna Giese, a teenager from Wisconsin who became the first person ever known to survive rabies after symptoms had already begun, a case that challenged everything the medical world thought it knew about the virus, and led to the development of an experimental treatment known as the Milwaukee Protocol.
Through these two cases, Grace breaks down how rabies is transmitted, why even the smallest scratch can be enough to infect, what really happens inside the body as the virus travels through the nervous system, and why symptoms like hydrophobia are among the most terrifying and unmistakable signs that the disease has reached its final stage.
We also explore the rare and controversial cases of survival, including what doctors still don’t understand about why a handful of people live while almost everyone else doesn’t, and why, despite modern medicine, rabies remains one of the most unforgiving infections in the world.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | State health officials are tracking a rise in rabies cases. |
| 0:03.6 | Rabies shots are only effective if started quickly. |
| 0:06.0 | By the time symptoms appear, rabies is almost always fatal. |
| 0:09.8 | And our teacher in Fresno County, California has died of rabies one month after being bitten by a bat at Bryant Middle School. |
| 0:16.0 | Man's being treated for exposure to rabies after a bat found in the Brantford-Brandt area tested positive for the virus. |
| 0:23.8 | For most diseases, there is a window, a moment where a doctor can step in and treatments can |
| 0:31.6 | turn things around. But there is one disease that just doesn't work like that. Because by the time you realise what is happening, by the time the fever sets in, your throat |
| 0:42.4 | closes up and a sip of water feels just impossible, by the time that happens, your time |
| 0:49.0 | is up and it's known that death is already on its way to you. |
| 0:53.0 | Not immediately, not all at once, but medically, |
| 0:56.5 | it is irreversible. It's inevitable and there is no cure. Every year, rabies kills around |
| 1:02.0 | 59,000 people worldwide. That is one person every nine minutes. And once symptoms begin, |
| 1:10.1 | the survival rate is low. It's virtually zero. It's 99.9% fatal. |
| 1:16.8 | In fact, in all of recorded medical history, there have only ever been a very select few |
| 1:22.4 | survivors. Most people who die never even see it coming because rabies can lie dormant for weeks, months, |
| 1:30.3 | sometimes even years, silently travelling through the nervous system. |
| 1:35.3 | It travels towards the brain and then when it does present symptoms, death doesn't take long after that. |
| 1:43.3 | In fact, in most cases, it comes within |
| 1:45.0 | just a few days. All of this, from something as small, as ordinary, as a single bite. |
| 1:54.0 | This is Red Rum, stories about the true victims of crime. I upload episodes on Mondays and |
| 1:59.1 | Thursdays. Make sure subscribe so you never miss an episode. |
| 2:04.6 | Yvonne Ford and her husband Ron lived in Barnsley, South Yorkshire in Northern England. |
... |
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