Iron Heart: The True Story of How I Came Back from the Dead (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781616083601)

On the way home from swim practice, eighteen-year-old athlete 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 his acclaimed memoir.

Author: Brian Boyle,Bill Katovsky
ISBN-10: 1616083603
ISBN-13: 9781616083601
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Language: English
Published: 11/15/2011
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.60d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 6.3
Point Value: 11
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 141696 / Iron Heart: The True Story of How I Came Back from the Dead

Award: Louisiana Teen Readers' Choice - Nominee