Florida Woman's Stray Cat Bite Led to a Rabies Scare and a Rare Diagnosis

Kennedy Ward says she can pinpoint the day her life changed: Valentine's Day 2023. She had been doing something familiar, putting out food for stray cats she had been feeding for months, when one of them bit her and set off a chain of events that would leave her in hospital for 10 months and reveal a rare condition she did not know she had.

A routine act of care turned into a medical emergency

Ward, a Florida woman, said she was feeding neighborhood strays when the cat her household had named Baby bit her. She told the story as a moment of distraction while she was putting food on the ground.

At first, the response seemed straightforward. Ward went to urgent care, where she received a tetanus shot. She said she was told there was nothing to worry about.

That changed when she got a notification a few days later. According to Ward, a cat in a nearby neighborhood had tested positive for rabies. She said that prompted contact with the health department, which advised monitoring Baby.

What happened next made the situation far more serious. Ward said Baby began acting erratically, walking in circles and making distressed sounds. Within days, the cat had died.

Why the bite could not be ignored

Rabies is one of the reasons even a seemingly minor animal bite can become urgent. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that once clinical symptoms appear, the disease is almost always fatal. It also says prompt treatment after a possible exposure is highly effective at preventing rabies from developing.

That treatment, known as post-exposure prophylaxis, typically includes cleaning the wound right away, giving rabies immune globulin for immediate protection, and starting a series of rabies vaccinations.

Because it can be difficult to know whether an animal is infected, health officials recommend acting quickly when rabies is even a possibility. Ward understood that she needed the vaccine series. What she did not expect was that the shots themselves would trigger another crisis.

Each dose brought another dangerous reaction

Ward said her first rabies shot caused her throat to swell shut almost immediately. She was given medication and taken to the hospital.

At that stage, she said, doctors believed she might be having an allergic reaction. She was admitted and given premedication, but the second shot brought the same result. Ward said her throat swelled shut again, and doctors intubated her and placed her in a coma.

The pattern continued. Ward said she reacted to every dose in the series. Over three months, she said, she was intubated eight times before doctors placed a tracheostomy opening in her neck. The cycle she described was stark: the tube would come out, she would receive the vaccine, and the swelling would return.

She said she moved in and out of comas during that period. Some lasted about 24 hours. Others lasted days. On one occasion, she said, she was unconscious for about a week.

In all, Ward spent 10 months in hospital.

The hidden condition behind the swelling

The explanation for Ward's repeated airway swelling was not an ordinary allergy, she said. During her hospital stay, she learned she had hereditary angioedema, or HAE, a rare genetic disorder she had not known she had.

HAE causes recurring episodes of severe swelling in different parts of the body, including the hands, feet, face, digestive tract and airways. Unlike more common swelling tied to histamine, it usually does not cause itching or hives.

A 2023 review in Advances in Therapy said the disorder is typically linked to a deficiency or dysfunction of a protein called C1 inhibitor. That problem leads to excess production of the inflammatory molecule bradykinin and allows fluid to leak from blood vessels into surrounding tissue.

The condition is also rare. A 2026 systematic review covering 40 studies, published in the International Archives of Allergy and Immunology, found a pooled diagnosed prevalence of about 1.7 cases per 100,000 people.

For Ward, the diagnosis answered the question that had baffled doctors when standard assumptions about an allergic reaction did not fully explain what kept happening.

Three years later, she is still living with the fallout

Ward said the medical crisis left lasting effects. She said she developed osteoporosis from steroids she was given. She also said she has blood clots and lung disease.

She described another major change to her health: common variable immune deficiency. In her words, she now has practically no immune system. She said she also had to relearn how to talk and walk and now lives with a brain injury as well as expressive aphasia, which she described as her brain needing to work extra hard to form words when she speaks.

Her daily life requires close management. Ward said she must be very careful around other people because her immune system is compromised. She also said she receives iron and blood infusions often and has to carry a rare, expensive medication with her in case of an emergency.

Even with those challenges, she said she is making progress. Ward is finishing a bachelor's degree and working two days a week. She has also applied to pursue a master's degree.

Why she decided to tell the story

When Ward was diagnosed with HAE, she said she searched online for other people going through the same thing. She did not find much response.

That experience shaped what she did next. Ward said she began sharing her own story online to answer questions and to help others feel less alone.

She also said support from friends, family and her religious faith has helped her keep looking ahead. The story that began with a bowl of food for stray cats became, in her telling, a lesson in how quickly a small encounter can expose a hidden medical condition and permanently alter a life.