Doron Weber's "Immortal Bird" is an account of every parent's darkest fear -- the death of a child.
According to Weber, however, Damon was not just a child, but a remarkable being, a perfect, possibly divine creature, who was -- and deserved to be -- beloved by all he met. This is understandable in one who has lost a son, and Damon, when not encumbered by his father's ecstatic accolades, does indeed seem like a bright, amiable soul whose future was cut tragically short, after years of cardiac troubles, by an infection after a heart transplant.
Weber, however, is another matter. A program director at the powerful Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, he not only had the wherewithal to extensively research his son's condition, but he is connected enough to have access to the best minds in cardiology. All of whom, according to him, were arrogant, incompetent and negligent right from the start, when Damon had heart surgery as an infant.
That top-flight surgeons and research scientists don't return phone calls in a timely manner and have an intense concern for their reputations is a downside that this otherwise well informed father doesn't seem to have anticipated, for some reason. Weber savages the entire cardiology community with the exception of one or two with whom he corresponds but who were not directly involved with his son's care. The lawsuit he's filed against the doctor under whose care Damon died is pending, as is his desire to expose what he says is the negligence of the "world-class" Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
Besotted by love, grief and anger, Weber is too distraught to write effectively, but no one will dare question his dedication.
