About the Author

Amy Silverstein was the author of Sick Girl, which won a Books for a Better Life Award and was a finalist for the Borders Original Voices Award, and My Glory Was I Had Such Friends. She earned her Juris Doctor at New York University School of Law, served on the Board of the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), and was an active speaker and writer on women's health issues and patient advocacy. She lived in New York.

Reviews

"Amy Silverstein is not an easy patient, with good reason. She has lived nineteen long years with a transplanted heart, much longer than any doctor could have predicted. And she has, arguably, done more with a transplanted heart than anyone else, including the publication of this remarkable book. It documents her fears, frustrations, anger, and perseverance. She recognizes that the world expects a simpering bundle of gratitude. In her compelling memoir, Sick Girl, Amy delivers a searing insight into the battle to stay alive. And yet, there is also love and humor, and a radiant courage."

"Silverstein is an inspired storyteller. Her engaging language and sharp insight make Sick Girl both compelling and moving. Few of us undergo a heart transplant at twenty-four, but we can recognize our own stories in this incisive, unflinching look at life, love, and extraordinary courage."

"Spectacular ... Heart transplant patients live along the jagged edges of the abyss that most mortals fear. By bravely peeking over the edge, Amy Silverstein shares with us the brutal reality of being a 'survivor.'"

"Truly compelling, Sick Girl sucked me in from the get-go. Amy Silverstein's story is amazing and inspiring."

Silverstein's memoir offers a rare glimpse at life as an organ-transplant recipient. She was a young law student when the first signs of a deadly virus in her heart appeared. When her doctor said she merely needed to keep her stress in check and add salt to her diet, she happily complied. At 25, after several months of terrifying symptoms and misdiagnoses, she received a heart transplant. Like all organ recipients, to prevent her body from rejecting her new heart, she depends on high doses of immunosuppressants-bitter "poison" that leaves her nauseous, trembling, aching, and highly vulnerable to infection-for the rest of her life, which was only expected to last another 10 years. To better her chances, she heeded her doctors' advice, sacrificing everything from coffee to alcohol to pregnancy. Still, it seemed that the best she could hope for was the illusion of a normal life, so she kept her body's punishing blows from her friends, her adopted son and at times even from her loving husband, her "ever-confident coach" through years of devastating illness. "[T]o make myself `normal' again would be the most extraordinary feat that I would never quite accomplish," she writes. Now, more than 17 years after her transplant, Silverstein reflects on the often misunderstood journey through "the torments of being saved" in a stirring story of survival and unyielding love. (Oct.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

"Amy Silverstein is not an easy patient, with good reason. She has lived nineteen long years with a transplanted heart, much longer than any doctor could have predicted. And she has, arguably, done more with a transplanted heart than anyone else, including the publication of this remarkable book. It documents her fears, frustrations, anger, and perseverance. She recognizes that the world expects a simpering bundle of gratitude. In her compelling memoir, Sick Girl, Amy delivers a searing insight into the battle to stay alive. And yet, there is also love and humor, and a radiant courage."
"Silverstein is an inspired storyteller. Her engaging language and sharp insight make Sick Girl both compelling and moving. Few of us undergo a heart transplant at twenty-four, but we can recognize our own stories in this incisive, unflinching look at life, love, and extraordinary courage."
"Spectacular ... Heart transplant patients live along the jagged edges of the abyss that most mortals fear. By bravely peeking over the edge, Amy Silverstein shares with us the brutal reality of being a 'survivor.'"
"Truly compelling, Sick Girl sucked me in from the get-go. Amy Silverstein's story is amazing and inspiring."