Rodney v. Death

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Science, Natural Sciences, History, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the fall of 2004, Jeanna Giese checked into the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin with a set of puzzling symptoms... and her condition was deteriorating fast. By the time Dr. Rodney Willoughby saw her, he only knew one thing for sure: if Jeanna's disturbing breakdown turned out to be rabies, she was doomed to die.

What happened next seemed like a medical impossibility. In this episode, originally aired in 2013, Producer Tim Howard tells Jeanna's story and talks to authors Monica Murphy and Bill Wasik, and scientists Amy Gilbert and Sergio Recuenco, while trying to unravel the mystery of an unusual patient and the doctor who dared to take on certain death.

Episode credits:

Reported and produced by Tim Howard

CITATIONS:

Articles:"Undead: The Rabies Virus Remains a Medical Mystery," Wired article by Monica Murphy and Bill Wasik

"Bats Incredible: The Mystery of Rabies Survivorship Deepens," Wired article by Monica Murphy and Bill Wasik

"Study Detects Rabies Immune Response in Amazon Populations," the CDC's page on Amy Gilbert and Sergio Recuenco's work (inc. photos from Peru)

"Selection Criteria for Milwaukee Protocol," when to try the Milwaukee Protocol

Books:Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus, by Bill Wasik and Monica MurphyOur newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's like this is radio lab.
0:02.8	Okay, go with me here for a second.
0:04.6	Imagine all the diseases that afflict human beings.
0:07.5	Imagine they all came together and had their own version
0:12.7	of the Olympics.
0:14.0	Okay, so events are like who could infect a human
0:16.9	the fastest or who could infect a human
0:19.3	from the longest distance or who could last
0:22.6	in a human body for the longest.
0:25.7	But I imagine the most heated and heinous competition
0:31.4	of all would be the deadliest.
0:34.4	Like what is the deadliest disease?
0:38.3	Now, until I heard the episode you are about to hear
0:41.9	which first broadcast in summer of 2013,
0:45.1	I would have been so confident that I could name,
0:48.7	you know, all the gold medal contenders.
0:50.7	Like Ebola, AIDS and Thracs, now COVID, but no.
0:57.3	This episode is about a disease.
0:59.7	I didn't even imagine was in the running,
1:02.2	but in terms of mortality rate alone,
1:04.5	it beats all of those diseases
1:06.6	and every other one you could think of.
	...

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