A year after her body was overtaken by rabies and her future looked grim, 16-year-old Jeanna Giese celebrated Christmas 2005 at her Milwaukee home with her family.

The teenager is the world’s only known unvaccinated human rabies survivor and has been slowly regaining her ability to walk and talk.

Last year, a very ill Jeanna spent Dec. 25 in a hospital bed. Since then, she has been back to school, is making plans to play on her volleyball team again next year and hopes to eventually go to college.

"Every time that I look at Jeanna, I feel how fortunate we are. She's the only one in the world, so you kind of look at things a little bit different," said her father, John Giese...