“The Gift of Life”
When asked about why he decided to write this book, Dave tells his story about his childhood, meeting and marrying his wife, teaching in the public school system over a span of 43 years, and their 10 children – 5 birth, and 5 Down Syndrome children whom they adopted. But it was “The Gift of Life” that started his journey as an author.
Eighteen years ago, he was fortunate to receive “The Gift of Life” — a heart transplant — at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington. His donor was a young man named Dominic Castaneda. Thanks to Dominic, God, and the amazing staff at SHMC, he has been given extra time on this earth to revisit some of his experiences from long ago. A Polio Story: Davy Crockett, Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Devil’s Disease is one consequence of that endeavor.
“I have been immune-suppressed since my heart transplant in 2007. When Covid 19 showed up 14 years later, my doctors ordered me to lock down at home. Bored, isolated and pummeled daily with pandemic news, I was reminded of a long ago time when I was a boy, when a different contagious disease was on the loose – one that maimed and killed mostly kids. The more I thought about the polio years, especially since one of my best friends went through the ungodly worst of it, I decided to write about those memories for my grandchildren. I wanted them to know how it used to be. At the urging of some good friends, it morphed into a book.”
“In writing this story, my greatest struggle was in dredging up all-but-forgotten memories of the polio kids, including, when I was just 7, a visit to the Polio Ward in downtown Los Angeles in 1954. There were so many iron lungs, and not an empty one anywhere. I remember seeing a boy about my age whose face and lips were blue. When I asked one of the nurses why, she said he was slowly suffocating.”
The story of Dr. Salk’s unwavering effort to develop an effective polio vaccine has always been a huge inspiration to me, and one I have included in this book. Facing ridicule and contempt from many in the medical community for some of his unorthodox views, and experiencing one failed possibility after another, he persevered until he finally succeeded, and probably saved millions of lives since then.