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Wisconsin rabies survivor celebrates motherhood

Posted at 7:39 AM, May 05, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-05 08:43:47-04

Children's Hospital of Wisconsin released a touching video on their Facebook page Wednesday in honor of the upcoming Mother's Day.

It featured Jeanna Giese-Frassetto, a Wisconsin woman who made worldwide headlines in 2004 when she was the first person ever to survive rabies without being vaccinated, and her mom, Ann.

"My mom is seriously my best friend, she's always been there," Giese-Frassetto said in the video. "...She loved and supported and cared for us...you could always talk to her."

Giese gave birth to fraternal twins -- Carly and Connor -- on March 26, 2016. While they are healthy now, Connor spent a week in a Neonatal ICU after being born.

"What I went though was once in a lifetime, but with Connor having been in the NICU for a week, going up and down, not quite knowing exactly when he was gonna get home, I definitely see now from a mother's point of view what she went through having to see your child hooked up to all these tubes and machines and not knowing when they could come home," Giese said in the video.

After being bitten by a bat in Fond du Lac, Giese did not seek immediate medical treatment and was diagnosed three weeks later. Her doctor, Dr. Rodney Willoughby, Jr., tried an experimental treatment on her, which later became known as "the Milwaukee Protocol."

"It will be great actually knowing I'm a mother on Mother's Day, knowing that I finally got to this point in my life," Giese-Frassetto said in the video.