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Nov. 24th, 2004 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jfbMedicine is amazing. Once in a while, during ER or something, it strikes me that there had to be a first person to think, oh yeah, the way we'll stop this person's pain is by CUTTING THEM OPEN AND MOVING STUFF AROUND. Counterintuitive, I guess you'd say.
For another example, on All Things Considered today I heard a story about this girl in Wisconsin. Rabies is a deadly disease, which is why usually when you get bitten you have to get a lot of vaccine. This is the first documented case, ever, of someone surviving after symptoms appeared, with no vaccination.
On NPR they interviewed one of the doctors, who explained it like this: There wasn't much in the literature about rabies, but there were some indications that the way you die from it is, it triggers some dysfunction in your brain. Your body can handle the disease itself, but your brain responds to it in some active and misguided fashion that kills you. So what they did is, they shut down her brain for a week--induced coma--allowing her immune system to square off against the virus, with her brain safely off on the sidelines.
It worked, as far as we know so far; she can't walk or talk, but she's alive, the rabies is gone, and they're hoping for a full recovery. Amazing.
For another example, on All Things Considered today I heard a story about this girl in Wisconsin. Rabies is a deadly disease, which is why usually when you get bitten you have to get a lot of vaccine. This is the first documented case, ever, of someone surviving after symptoms appeared, with no vaccination.
On NPR they interviewed one of the doctors, who explained it like this: There wasn't much in the literature about rabies, but there were some indications that the way you die from it is, it triggers some dysfunction in your brain. Your body can handle the disease itself, but your brain responds to it in some active and misguided fashion that kills you. So what they did is, they shut down her brain for a week--induced coma--allowing her immune system to square off against the virus, with her brain safely off on the sidelines.
It worked, as far as we know so far; she can't walk or talk, but she's alive, the rabies is gone, and they're hoping for a full recovery. Amazing.
