Resurrecting Anthony Giveaway

RESURRECTING ANTHONY: A True Story of Courage & Destination by Linda Cole and Tony Cole:

“Courage is the one telling trait that allows us to soldier on in the face of life’s greatest challenges,” writes Linda Cole. “We never know who we are capable of becoming until we are put to the test.” In this remarkable story RESURRECTING ANTHONY: A True Story of Courage & Destination (Alexandra Publishing, January 2011) authors Linda and Tony Cole find themselves stretched beyond anything they could have ever imagined when their 12-year-old son, Anthony, declares to a friend “I have no pulse” and collapses on the school playground.

It takes paramedics 13 tries to shock Anthony back to life, only to discover that the healthy, athletic boy has had a heart attack caused by a rare abnormal electrical pathway in his heart. It took four to five minutes to resuscitate him which deprived his brain of oxygen setting into motion a chain of medical events that ultimately resulted in global traumatic brain injury.

Drawing courage from their family and faith, the Coles face the enormity of Anthony’s situation and search for answers that will give them back their son. Ever the pragmatist, Linda plans for all of Anthony’s day-to-day care while Tony intensifies his efforts to coach his boy back to the person he was before his heart attack. Driven by the need to make progress before the window for optimal recovery closes, they begin an experimental treatment hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), to restore whatever function Anthony has left.

Slowly, glimpses of Anthony emerge, a light in his eyes, a brief smile, and one day, his first words since his journey began – “yeah, baby!” – inspired by cheerleaders during a football game on TV.

Anthony’s incremental progress leads to a series of personal revelations for his father. Tony’s test is to understand his new Anthony, whose greatest gift now is the ability to live totally and completely in the moment, the riveting heart of this tender tale. “I realized I must let go of my first Anthony in order to accept and love this new and different one,” Tony says.

“This was not an easy story to tell,” writes Linda Cole. “We found the courage to tell it because we hope that those in crisis will learn how to cope, how to be open and accepting of offered help, and how to advocate for needed services. We hope to inspire people to summon the courage they need to persevere, to commit without reservation, to adapt. We hope that others might learn from our mistakes and gain from our progress. We wrote this book and created the “Personal Courage SeriesTM” as a vehicle for people who have experienced life changing crisis to share their stories, learning and hope.”

The book also includes helpful “Toolbox” or takeaways for living through crisis which includes organizational advice for dealing with the maze and mountain of paperwork that results from hospital and insurance bills. It also has an indispensable directory of resources that includes contact info for groups such as: Brain Injury Association of America and the National Association of the State Directors of Developmental Disabilities. For more information please go to www.resurrectinganthony.com.

Shop: You can purcahse Resurrecting Anthony at various retailers online and nationwide (SRP $14.95).

Win: One lucky winner will receive a copy of Resurrecting Anthony!

***THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED***
Congratulations to Stacey L.!

• To enter, comment on why you'd like to win.
• You’ll get one extra entry each if you do any of the following (be sure to leave a comment for each “entry”):
• 1)Blog about this giveaway and link back to Sage and Savvy and Resurrecting Anthony(leave the link in your comment)
• 2)Subscribe to my feed
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• 5)Tweet this giveaway (leave the link in your comment)
• The deadline for entries is January 11, 2011, 11:59pm HST.
• If you submitted an eligible entry and it is chosen by random.org as the winner, you will be notified via email on or about January 12, 2011 (make sure your email address is in your profile or comment and be sure to check your junk/spam, etc. folders) and will have 3 days to accept.
• Valid for US addresses only.
• By entering in this giveaway, you have read and agreed to Sage and Savvy’s policies regarding giveaways.
  Good luck!

Thank you to the sponsor for providing the product for giveaway free of charge. I received no monetary compensation for this post.

12:00 AM Posted in: books,giveaways
Gem is a Hawaii Mom Blogger who posts reviews and giveaways, and blogs about life in Hawaii as a mom of 3 boys, including one with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. She loves to travel, bake, and eat anything with chocolate.