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About Rescuing Jeffrey
Product Description On a perfect sunny July 4th afternoon, Richard Galli and his family were celebrating the holiday at the home of some friends. The kids were playing in the pool, and the grown-ups were relaxing. Then the unthinkable happened. Galli's seventeen-year-old son, Jeffrey, dove into the pool, struck his head, and nearly drowned. Although Galli saved his son's life, Jeffrey was paralyzed with a devastating spinal cord injury. Rescuing Jeffrey is a compelling look at the next ten days. In this disarmingly honest account, Galli wrestles with a horrible predicament: Should he let his son live as a quadriplegic, unable to move or breathe on his own? Or should Galli "rescue" his son again-this time by removing Jeffrey's life support? Galli weighs this question with intelligence and stark emotional intensity. For ten days he struggles to comprehend a future he never imagined for his son. During those ten days two parents are forced to make the most difficult decision of their lives. "I had brought my son back to life," Galli writes, "and then I had to find a way to kill him." Although Galli assumes the burden of choosing death for his minor son, convincing others that the decision is correct, in the end that decision is taken away. Battered by bad luck, shock, and medication, unable even to lift a finger, Jeffrey finds the power to make the decision himself. Rescuing Jeffrey is a bluntly eloquent story about tragedy and love and the choices we make at the brink of survival. It is a story that asks what, after all, is a life worth living? From Publishers Weekly Galli's moving account of a family tragedy unfolds as an existential life-or-death drama. At age 17, on July 4, 1998, his son, Jeffrey, dived into a backyard swimming pool, nearly drowned and severely damaged his spinal column; the boy was completely paralyzed from the neck down. Faced with the prognosis that Jeff would probably spend his future in a wheelchair and on a respirator, requiring round-the-clock care, Galli, who's a lawyer, and his wife, Toby, initially were strongly inclined to remove their son's life supportAand Jeff himself told his parents he wanted to die. One doctor at the hospital believed that ending Jeff's life was unthinkable, but other doctors disagreed, and at the Gallis' request the hospital began the review process that could have led to approval of the decision to terminate the boy's life. But within days Jeff had a change of heart; meanwhile, Galli, having read inspirational books by recent quadriplegics Christopher Reeve and Travis Roy, and having weighed the options, reversed his position of being "a strong advocate for Jeffrey's death." This gut-wrenchingly candid book, which focuses on the first 11 days of the Gallis' ordeal, is likely to arouse controversy and sharply divided reactions, especially since the Gallis, in the first agonizing days before Jeff regained speech, were willing to make the live-or-die decision without informing their paralyzed son. Yet this eloquent story of heartbreak and hope is ultimately life-affirming. Jeff, who graduates from high school this spring, transformed his father, who ruefully notes: "In the end [Jeff] even managed to push aside the only force that was actually strong enoughAor weak enoughAto kill him: his dad." BOMC featured selection; author tour. (June.-- even managed to push aside the only force that was actually strong enoughAor weak enoughAto kill him: his dad." BOMC featured selection; author tour. (June) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal YA-In one terrible instant, on July 4, 1998, the lives of the Galli family changed forever. Their 17-year-old son dove into a pool and broke his neck when his head hit the bottom. So begins the account of the next 10 days in Jeffrey's life as told by his father. When the Gallis were informed that their son's fracture had resulted in quadriplegia, their world crumbled. As doctors, specialists, socia
