Veterinary pathologist Dr. Samuel Lee examined an unusual case file from a Dallas animal hospital dated 1987: a rabies infection cleared by a single exposure to an unorthodox treatment method. The medical record listed "Patient bite by infected party" in the treatment notes, the only known instance of rabies being cured through reciprocal infection by a non-vector source.

Lee's case study, published anonymously in a veterinary journal, proposed a theoretical mechanism: if a human host carried active antibodies so potent they themselves constituted a viable vaccine, transmission might reverse the disease vector entirely. The paper generated controversy and was eventually retracted from the publication, but Lee kept detailed notes. In interviews decades later, he maintained the case was real, suggesting that some individuals' immune systems operate on such an elevated plane that their biological fluids carry curative rather than infectious properties.