Gib's Odyssey One Man's Battle Against the Ravages of Lou Gehrig's Disease and his Courageous Final Voyage

by Bradley, Walter

• ISBN13: 9780762779789
• ISBN10: 0762779780
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-09-11
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

Gib's Odysseyis the true story of an extraordinary man, Gib Peters, and his solo journey along the Intracoastal Waterway from Key West to New York and back while suffering the ravages of Lou Gehrig's disease. During his six-month voyage aboard his boat, Ka-Ching, Gib encounters numerous obstacles. He meets an incompetent sailor who wraps his tow rope around Ka-Ching's propellers and accidentally stabs himself as he tries to cut it loose. Navy and Coast Guard Zodiacs rush to stop Gib from entering a naval bombardment zone. He searches for his two kittens, brought along as companions on his trip, when they go AWOL. All the while he is forced to cope with increasing levels of paralysis, steering the boat home with his feet and unable to speak. Authored by the neurologist who treated him, this remarkable book is told in Gib's own voice through a series of e-mails to family and friends and articles he wrote for the Key West Citizen. Part travelogue, part soul-searching meditation, it is an uplifting and sometimes hilarious story of one man's conquest of death and his profound insights into life.

Author Biography

Walter G. Bradley, DM, FRCP, is the emeritus chairman of the Department of Neurology at the Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami. He is the author, most recently, of Treating the Brain: What the Best Doctors Know.