Intensive Care: A Family Love Story

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Intensive Care is the true story of what happened to one family when fate unexpectedly cast ordinary people in heroic roles. Mary-Lou Weisman was a suburban wife and mother, her husband Larry was a rising young lawyer, and their two sons, Adam and Peter, were four and two and a half, respectively, when they learned that Peter had incurable muscular dystrophy and at best might live, in the doctor's words, "into his third decade."
This is the story not of Pete's death but of his life, and not just of Pete but of the entire family. After the initial shock, anger, and almost unbearable grief, Lary-Lou and Larry rallied to save what had become a threatened marriage and to give both children lives as full and as normal as possible, even when succumbing to the inevitable desperation-- in this case, visiting a faith healer in England. A story of adventure and of search, Intensive Care is often unexpectedly funny, since it is humor that can save the day; sometimes painful; frequently poignant; and always totally honest and deeply human. The parents are not noble but real-- they fight and blame each other and then come together again. the children are brattish, amusing, and extraordinarily brave and understanding by turns. The Weismans are people the reader will never forget, and their story once begun, is almost impossible to put down.