Amazon Ellingsworth Press Acknowledged A Man TBI Information Category:  Biography Publisher: The Ellingsworth Press LLC ISBN-10:  0960569812 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 370 Copyright: Jan 1 1998 ISBN-13: 9780960569830 ACKNOWLEDGED A MAN is a true story of senseless, violent crime. It is the inspiring story of a young man whose life was changed forever by Brain Injury. At the age of twenty-five, Nick Del Buono lost the life he had known when he was assaulted in a YMCA. Barbara tells of Nick’s great losses, his heroic courage and his indomitable spirit. She details this family’s fascinating battles with a sometimes, cruel medical establishment, a convoluted justice system and an irresponsible national and local YMCA. Barbara shares the peace found in forgiving and the joys and triumphs she discovered in home rehabilitation.  Excerpt He was bleeding from the mouth and nose. His entire face was so disfigured he was hardly recognizable. When I saw him I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. I wanted to lie down on the other table, curl up in a ball and scream. Being told that Nick had been hit in the head with a baseball bat was hard enough, but seeing his burised and swollen face made me feel like vomiting. "Nick, Dad and I are here," I said at his bedside. I spoke soothingly to him because he couldn't see through his swollen eyes. He tried to rise up on the table to a full sitting position, and the nurse approached him as more blood gushed from his nose and down his face........ Officer Massaro came to us and siad he was still investigating the case. He explained that he had just come from the police station, where he had talked with a fellow from the YMCA by the name of Paul Ford who was in charge of the building that day. Officer Massaro remarked that while he was talking with Mr. Ford, Tramontano entered the room. Officer Massaro was amazed at how frightened Mr. Ford was of Tramontano, even in the station house with all the police around. Mr. Ford told Officer Massaro that Tramontano had been "acting up for a few days." We had no idea what that meant, but it disturbed us very much.

Acknowledged A Man
Yehuda Ben-Yishay, PhD.
Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation Medicine, NYU School of Medicine
Director, Brain Injury Day Treatment Program, Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine

“This book should be on the “must read” list of all health care professionals. With admirable restraint--eschewing both rancor and shrillness—the mother of a severely brain injured man drives home some painful, disturbing, but ultimately edifying ‘messages’ to those who provide care and counsel to patients and their families.”



Acknowledged A Man
Attorney Lawrence J. Smith
Chairman, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Litigation Group
Association of Trial Lawyer of America

“Defendants committing fraud and hiding evidence, doctors who don’t know how to treat brain injury and don’t care are more common than we think. Barbara Del Buono’s story is not as rare as one might think. What is rare is she did not give up. This is a story all of us who deal with brain injury need to read and analyze.”



Acknowledged A Man
Dallas Morning News
Every parent – make that every citizen – should read this harrowing story of one family’s crusade to reform an institution and rehabilitate its loved one. Nick Del Buono went to the Waterbury YMCA one day to lift weights and was carried out in a coma, brutally beaten. Doctors gave him no chance of survival, much less of living a normal life again. His parents refused to give up, however, and through their tireless efforts, Nick slowly began to recover. The Del Buono’s eventually discovered that their son’s attacker was a YMCA instructor, so they sued. (Local Y’s are affiliated with but not completely governed by the national organization; individual Y’s are free to establish and manage their own programs.)