A team of Wisconsin doctors say a teenage girl is the first known person to survive rabies without a vaccination.

Jeanna Giese, 15, is awake and clearly alert. Her mother said she even stood up Tuesday -- nearly two months after getting rabies from a bat bite, reported WISN-TV in Milwaukee.

"Probably before her eyes opened, she squeezed our hand, so, it was exciting," Jeanna's mother, Ann Giese, said.

"Miracles can happen. We really believe that it did," Jeanna's father, John Giese, said.

Doctors said a unique mix of drugs was used to help Jeanna ward off the disease. They said to describe Jeanna's recovery as "exciting" is truly an understatement.

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"I knew this was a 100 percent fatal disease," said Dr. Rodney Willoughby, a pediatric specialist at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

The infection had completely taken over her brain. Antiviral shots that people would normally get much sooner after being infected wouldn't work.

"I therefore decided to temporarily suppress the dysfunctional brain and to allow natural immunity time to catch up," Willoughby said.

Doctors induced coma for seven days and used a cocktail of four drugs, including brain protectants and anti-virals. It was an approach that has never been done before in rabies treatment.

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15-Year-Old Survives Rabies Bite

For Jeanna, it worked.

"We removed her from isolation, considering her cured of the rabies, and transferred her to a standard hospital floor on Nov. 18," Willoughby said.

Willoughby said the drugs weren't "fancy," but he won't reveal them until more research is conducted.

Jeanna joins an exclusive group. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said it's rare to survive rabies after the onset of symptoms. There are only five other people in the world known to have survived rabies after the onset of symptoms.

Jeanna's case is unique from the other five survivors. She never received a rabies vaccine, and the others did.

Doctors are calling her a one of a kind.

Jeanna still faces have several months of intense rehabilitation, but her parents stood in the hospital grinning Tuesday. They were very sure she always knew she would be OK -- everyone else just needed to believe.

"Even when Jeanna was in a coma, my wife was staying here overnight and reading cards from people, and at one point in time, my wife had read a card from some parents who had lost a child," John Giese said. "Jeanna's monitor -- her heart rate -- went up. She actually got red in the face. We believe she could hear us."