cover image Saving Henry: A Mother's Journey

Saving Henry: A Mother's Journey

Laurie Strongin, . . Hyperion, $25.99 (271pp) ISBN 978-1-4013-2356-1

Within a month of his 1995 birth, Henry Strongin Goldberg was diagnosed with Fanconi anemia, a rare, frequently fatal genetic disease that disproportionally strikes Ashkenazi Jews. It frequently leads to aplastic anemia, a fatal disorder compromising the body's ability to fight infection unless cured by a successful stem-cell transplant from the umbilical-cord blood of a perfectly matched sibling donor. As previously chronicled by a New York Times Magazine writer and on ABC TV's Nightline, the author and her husband became the first FA carriers to use a controversial procedure to identify and implant an artificially conceived embryo that was a healthy genetic match for Henry. But after nine failed attempts at conceiving in four years and government interference, they ran out of time and had to resort to a mismatched, unrelated donor. Two years and numerous complications later, seven-year-old Henry—intelligent, charming, and supremely brave—died. Strongin's frank description of her experience as the mother of a dying child and her lucid explanations of medical jargon will be helpful and inspiring to parents in similar straits and a boon to those whose children suffer from Fanconi anemia. (Mar.)