By John Crowley Hardcover $22.95 224 Pages When John and Aileen Crowley learned that their two youngest children had a rare and little understood genetic disorder, they didn't hope for miracles: they made them happen. In 1998, 15-month old Megan and 4-month old Patrick were diagnosed with Pompe disease, a rare and fatal neuromuscular disorder that affects only a few thousand children worldwide, usually leaving them with little to no muscle function, enlarged hearts, and severe difficulty breathing. The Crowleys were told to take their children home and "enjoy their short time together...there is nothing that can be done." From his blue-collar upbringing in New Jersey, John Crowley, a recent Harvard MBA graduate working at Bristol-Meyers Squibb, was just beginning to taste success in corporate America. New he was absolutely determined to find a treatment to save the children's lives. Frustrated with the pace of Pompe research, at the age of 31 Crowley walked away from the corporate world to help co-found a start-up biotech company, focused exclusively on developing a treatment for Pompe. Written by John Crowley with Ken Kurson (co-writer of Leadership with Rudy Giuliani), Chasing Miracles is the story of how the Crowleys set out to do "whatever it takes" against phenomenal odds to help Megan and Patrick first to survive, and then to thrive - and to keep their family, including oldest son John, Jr. together and their marriage strong. A truly uplifting and inspiring book that captures this remarkable family's everyday life, this is a memoir about life and love; about coping with adversity; and, most importantly, about what it means to never, never quit. |