AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE: One Family's Struggle with an Agonizing Medical Mystery
James Patterson and Hal Friedman
Little, Brown and Company
Biography
ISBN: 9780316024754
One of the greatest torments that a parent can go through is to have a child with significant medical difficulties. AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE is the story of one such youngster, Cory Friedman.
James Patterson met Hal Friedman when both worked at an advertising agency in the 1970s and stayed in touch as Patterson went on to become one of the world’s most popular authors. Patterson heard Friedman’s accounts of his son’s battles with what is diagnosed as a particularly severe onset of Tourette’s syndrome, a condition manifested by uncontrollable tics and verbal miscues, and aggravated by other factors. AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE is a unique collaboration, told in Cory’s voice by Patterson, based upon the accounts of Hal Friedman, as corroborated by Cory.
It all starts when five-year-old Cory’s sudden twitching becomes so extreme and violent that he’s in danger of doing himself harm. He begins a regimen of pharmaceutical treatment that literally turns into a salad of medications, prescribed and administered with the best of intentions yet ultimately doing little or no good (and, in some instances, doing grievous harm). As the book progresses, we watch Cory spiral downward, physically and socially, experiencing significant problems at school and at home. At times his jerking is so volatile that it results in damage to the family home --- the floorboards, the walls, the doors --- and, more significantly, to Cory himself. He is regarded as an oddity at school, to the extent that he becomes the class clown, simply to get some measure of acceptance. Even his most understanding teachers occasionally reach the limits of their patience.
There are high spots: Cory climbs a tree, an accomplishment that is not done without great difficulty; he excels in two different sports, meeting episodic challenges and conquering them; and after a particularly violent episode, he writes his parents a poignant letter that comes straight from the heart. Yet he begins gravitating toward other social outcasts while falling behind in his schoolwork and creating potentially devastating situations at home. As medication after medication is tried and fails, Cory begins self-medicating with alcohol, a foolish act born out of desperation.
It is when all seems lost that Cory’s parents initiate a treatment method that actually puts him on the road to recovery. At the same time, the narrative uncovers a startling revelation, one presented as Cory’s mother begins a last-ditch advocacy for him during his senior year of high school that results in an almost total resolution of Cory’s problems.
Patterson’s stark, bare-boned narrative in AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE is compelling. It reads somewhat like a diary where the recorder does not write every day, but instead hits the high and low points with great effectiveness. What is not and cannot be determined is the reason for the sudden onset of this condition. While an anxiety disorder is considered, it seems to be a bit of a stretch. Patterson’s description of Cory’s symptoms are not dissimilar from those associated with demonic possession --- an etiology not mentioned here, though a brief and secondary analogy is made at one point --- and certainly the most effective treatment regimen utilized by Cory’s parents could be equated with a symbolic purging. Whatever the reason, however, AGAINST MEDICAL ADVICE is a frightening, sympathetic and at times heartwarming testimony to the triumph of the human will over adversity.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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