What About the Boy?

A Father's Pledge to His Disabled Son

by Stephen Gallup

Archive for August 2011

 
 

Interview on the Hollis Chapman Show

Click here to listen to a 30-minute interview with host Hollis Chapman. Excerpt below:

“… Go back to the title, What About the Boy? There’s a temptation, because he’s not communicating with us very well, and we’re wrapped up in our own thinking and we’re anxious—but I think it’s safe to say that he was anxious, too. He was probably scared. He knew, in one way or another, that things weren’t right. He was in distress. And we didn’t know why. And I think the thing that motivated me to say that [I loved him] was that we had been to the osteopath and she had said that this child is probably—here he is almost two years old—he’s never been comfortable once in his life. He has never known what it’s like to be comfortable. And I felt so much compassion for the poor kid, and I think that’s what prompted me to say it. And maybe that made a connection that he was thinking, Oh, at last they understand, or at last I’ve got a lifeline here.”

Interview on Family Focus Radio

30-minute interviewClick here to listen to a nice 30-minute interview with host Line Brunet. Excerpt below:

“… This book is intended for the general public, but I hope that medical people will read it as well. Because this is feedback in terms of the patient-doctor interface, and what happens when that goes wrong. I would like it to be the start of a dialog  …” 

Radio Interview with Dave and Bill

Dave and Bill at Cyberhood Watch Radio gave me my first one-hour interview, and the time flew past. Click here to listen. Excerpt below:

 
“… we didn’t know a whole lot about kids, but we knew things had veered way off course. So, when a year had passed with no improvement, and we got into the second year, we began to realize that if anything was ever going to change, we were probably going to have to be the agents of that change. We had to stop being so passive and dependent on professionals and start taking more personal responsibility. Even if it meant ignoring what the professionals then said to us. Because they did tell us we were wasting our time. …”

Recommended Reading

TV interview in which WATB was recommended

It was a pleasant surprise to learn that What About the Boy? was one of a handful of new books mentioned on TV Saturday. Click here to see the video clip.

A friend asked what I did to achieve such notice, but this one was an unexpected gift from the blue. On the other hand, some work has gone into lining up a series of media interviews. When possible, I will begin posting links to those discussions as they occur. The first is scheduled for 8:35 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday.

UPDATE: That first interview (via Skype) is now available here. Select the file dated 08-08-11. My segment begins at about the 35-minute mark.

INTERVIEW EXCERPT: “… I’m proud of what we did. But you know I really can’t imagine any other course of action. It was just a thing that had to be done. Now, not everybody reacts as we did. Not everybody has exactly the same variables in their life. If that happened to me now, if I had a child at this point who had that kind of problem, I’m not sure I would have the energy to do it. But I’m so glad that we did it. And even the things that we tried that did not work out—. Could you go on with your life knowing that there was an option that you didn’t try? For me, the answer was no. I had to try.”