A Neurosurgeon and Father's Personal Journey of Turning Tragedy into Hope.

Life & Death...

Two words with such opposite meaning, words that inflict such contradictory emotions, and yet, they are so closely intertwined in our lives.

As parents, we bring meaning and life into this world through our children.  Our lives become defined as a result.  We learn the joy, hardship, and responsibility of shaping an innocent life.  But a day will come when that life will be taken.  For some, death comes too soon. 

This is the story of my son, Brian Nicholas Hoeflinger, who died unexpectedly at age eighteen.  He was a good boy who made a mistake.  That one mistake cost him his life.  That is the harsh reality of teenage drinking. 

I can never forget the image of my son lying dead on a cold gurney in Trauma Room 24 at Toledo Hospital, a room I have been in so many times before as a neurosurgeon but never as a father.  His lifeless body lay there, almost as though he were asleep - and I wished he was only asleep but I knew all too well that he was dead and would never come back home with us again.  Nothing can ever prepare a parent for such an event. 

This book will take you on a personal journey through the life and death of my son.  You will see, through my eyes, the pain and agony of losing a child, but you will also experience the love, inspiration, and hope that has resulted.  By reading this book, you will learn how more lives can be touched and saved through the life and death of my son than I could ever accomplish as a neurosurgeon.  This is a book that every parent and every teenager should read.