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Title details for Iron Heart by Brian Boyle - Wait list

Iron Heart

The True Story of How I Came Back from the Dead

by Brian Boyle
Bill Katovsky
ebook
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It was a horrific car crash. On the way home from swim practice, eighteen-year old Brian Boyle's future changed in an instant when a dump truck plowed into his Camaro. He was airlifted to a shock-trauma hospital. He had lost sixty percent of his blood, his heart had moved across his chest, and his organs and pelvis were pulverized. He was placed in a medically-induced coma. When Brian finally emerged from the coma two months later, he had no memory of the accident. He could see and hear, but not move or talk. Unable to communicate to his doctors, nurses, or frantic parents, he heard words like “vegetable" and “nursing home." If he lived, doctors predicted he might not be able to walk again, and certainly not swim. Then, miraculously, Brian clawed his way back to the living. First blinking his eyelids, then squeezing a hand, then smiling, he gradually emerged from his locked-in state. The former swimmer and bodybuilder had lost one hundred pounds.
Iron Heart is the first-person account of his ordeal and his miraculous comeback. With enormous fortitude he learned to walk, then run, and eventually, to swim. With his dream of competing in the Ironman Triathlon spurring him on, Brian defied all odds, and three-and-a-half years after his accident, crossed the finish line in Kona, Hawaii. Brian's inspiring journey from coma to Kona is brought to life in this memoir.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 1, 2009

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781628731439
      • File size: 6054 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781628731439
      • File size: 6207 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • ATOS Level: 6.3
    • Lexile® Measure: 900
    • Interest Level: 9-12(UG)
    • Text Difficulty: 4-5

  • Reviews

    • Booklist

      September 1, 2009
      When the book opens, Brian Boyle seems to be in a vegetative state. How did he come to be in the ICU? And why cant he communicate with anyone to tell them he understands what theyre saying? He finally wills himself to blink, smile, and twitch his muscles in response to visitors questions, thereby starting a miraculous recovery. Boyle, an 18-year-old swimmer looking forward to starting college, was driving his Camaro when a dump truck plowed into the drivers side. The on-site emergency crew didnt think he had any chance of surviving such a crash, but at every step along the wayfrom that first blink to walking, talking, and to swimming competitivelyBoyle defied conventional wisdom. An only child, Boyle recounts this story with unbridled admiration for and thanks to his parents, who stuck by his side throughout his ordeal, and for the medical professionals at the hospital who cared for him. Not only did Boyle recover, he also went on to compete in an iron-man triathlon. A moving, remarkable story of the power of the mind and the body.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:6.3
  • Lexile® Measure:900
  • Interest Level:9-12(UG)
  • Text Difficulty:4-5

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