HIV-positive doctor says his dog saved his life

HIV-positive doctor says his dog saved his life

Martha Irvine, Ap National Writer
Updated 12:44 pm, Sunday, November 29, 2015

CHICAGO (AP) — Rob Garofalo was devastated. He'd built his medical and research career on helping young AIDS patients. Then he learned that he, too, was HIV-positive. The news came after he'd already survived kidney cancer and a breakup with his longtime partner.

Try as he might, the doctor could not heal himself, at least not emotionally. "I couldn't afford myself the same compassion that I'd spent a career teaching other people to have," says Garofalo, who heads the adolescent medicine division at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. At first, he told almost no one about his HIV status — not even his own elderly mother, who sensed that her son was struggling mightily during a Christmas visit in 2010.

"You can tell me that everything is OK, but it's not," she said, cupping her hands around her son's face at the end of his trip to his native New Jersey.

Garofalo recalls crying on much of the flight home to Chicago in a catharsis that led him to an unexpected decision, one that helped him in ways no human could and ultimately led him to a new role in the HIV community.

He got a dog.It was a little Yorkshire terrier he named Fred. And everything changed. I had this little bundle of, like, pure joy," Garofalo says. "He made me re-engage with the world."

The doctor, who's helped save many an AIDS patient, knows it sounds a little crazy that the companionship and simple needs of a pet could help him cope with his disease and pull him out of depression. "But I'm not exaggerating when I say that he saved my life," says Garofalo, who'd considered suicide after his HIV diagnosis.

His journey back to life started with simple things. He had to leave the apartment where he'd isolated himself to buy food for Fred. He had to talk to the many people who wanted to stop and pet the little dog. Garofalo also found comfort when he'd awaken with one of his frequent night terrors and have Fred to snuggle.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/HIV-positive-doctor-says-his-dog-saved-his-life-6663350.php

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Rob Garofalo and Fred



Rob Garofalo being chased by a terrifying Yorkie. [/center]