Rescuing Jeffrey

I thought Resuing Jeffrey was a very honest story about when life deals you a rotten hand. Having gone through my own experience with my son who came down with Bacterial Meningitis and was left unable to move or speak at the age of 14 I can truly understand how Richard Galli was feeling. Not everything that goes through your mind is always pleasant. You are in store for so many things that you probably never though you would have to deal with. Rescuing Jeffrey made me cry because nobody knows how hard it is when it is your child. A very moving book.

On July 4, 1998, 17-year-old Jeffrey Galli dove into a swimming pool. When he didn't emerge, his friends ran for help, and Jeffrey's mother and father pulled him from the pool and saved his life; subsequently they learn that he has been paralyzed from the neck down and will spend his life dependent on a ventilator for his breathing.In this memoir of the first ten days of Jeffrey's accident and hospitalization, his father recreates the immense sadness, the horror, and the gut-wrenching decisions that his family faced. Chief among these was his own conviction that the most humane choice they could make was to turn off the ventilator and let Jeffery die in order to spare him a life robbed of any independent physical activity and without the potential to pursue their vision of a happy life. When Jeffrey awakes and is able to communicate--and has no brain damage--they rethink their decision and recognize there is more to being alive than having a body.The family's struggle to decide on the best course of action for their son is the main focus of this book, and is presented so well that the reader feels the anguish of this horrible choice: to determine whether to keep your child alive, knowing that he will live completely wheelchair bound and dependent on others for the most basic care, or elect to let him die and live with that decision for life (and face the possibility that in the future a cure will be discovered).Perhaps the most moving sections were when Jeffrey awoke each day and had to face his paralysis anew--his father there to explain to him time and again the circumstances and consequences of the accident. An incredibly moving read about parenthood and life--I dare you to read it without crying.

I read Tuesdays With Morrie and was moved by the thought of a relationship rekindled - at a time when it still had a chance to matter to both individuals. I read Rescuing Jeffrey and was moved by much more than that. With riveting eloquence, one dad shares with all of us his horrific struggle to do what he thinks is best for his terribly injured son. Galli does not ask for our understanding or our support. He simply tells his story with brutal honesty. The book grabs you and takes you on an emotional journey from which you truly emerge a different person. You cannot put this book down, your tears wet the pages as you turn them, but you rejoice in Jeffrey Galli's own declaration that he wants to continue life's journey - even with the cards that now have been dealt him. While Galli argues with the system for the right to end his son's life, his account of those ten days reveals too many points along the way where he actually is searching for reasons to let that decision be Jeffrey's. In the end, Galli recognizes that, too. He probably knew it all along. He just was lucky enough to have a son who reminded him of it when it counted the most. This is a life-affirming narrative of the first order.

"Rescuing Jeffrey" is a poignant real-life story about the human condition and the fighting spirit to live. It is a father-son story set against the backdrop of tragedy: on July 4, 1998, a 17 year-old boy dives into the shallow end of a pool, severely injures himself, is saved by his father, and then is taken to a hospital. That is when and where this extraordinary memoir by Richard Galli begins. Depressing? Yes, at times. But "Rescuing Jeffrey" is not prelude to Prozac. It is, rather, a sober and realistic account of how a family - father, mother, son, and daughter - deals with an unimaginable affliction . . . the specter of a son fighting for life when the very meaning of his life is forever transformed. Throughout, there is no romantic false hope or exaggerated sentimentality. There is only love, but a love acutely aware of the cruelties of fate and the brutal demands of reality. Reminiscent of the style and mindset of Albert Camus, Richard Galli has written a powerful and pondering account of eleven days that began with catastrophe and evolved into something remarkably unexpected. It is a story of how a father and son, a husband and wife, a community of friends, doctors, and rabbis all came together to confront the terror of tragedy. Galli's memoir is, without doubt, an affirmation of hope in the face of hopeless odds. "Rescuing Jeffrey" will not leave you depressed. No. It will leave you thinking about life and love and just how impossible is the former without the latter.

Reading Rescuing Jeffrey is almost like seeing a bad accident on the side of the interstate. You don't want to look, but you do. In this case, please do. While I often had to read through copious tears, it is a fascinating story written by someone who holds your attention despite your already knowing the ending. And, by reading, you find the truth: that one's mind and one's heart are the essence of the person . . . not what they can do. Jeffrey is the hero of this story. He decides, while everyone else agonizes, that he will live. This story will break your heart and then, slowly, as you think about it, heal it again.