A doctor who has been diagnosed with HIV, has made a startling revelation about his dog saving his life.
Rob Garofalo and his dog, Fred
Dr. Rob Garofalo built his medical and research career on helping young AIDS patients and then all of a sudden he learned that he, too, is HIV-positive. He was devastated. The news came after he'd already survived kidney cancer and a breakup with his longtime partner.
Garofalo, who heads the adolescent medicine division at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, said: "I couldn't afford myself the same compassion that I'd spent a career teaching other people to have."
The Associated Press reports that at first, Garofalo 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.
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.
Garofalo, who has 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.
He said: "I had this little bundle of, like, pure joy. He made me re-engage with the world."
"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.
Eventually, Garofalo sought counseling and told his mother and friends about his HIV status. As his energy level grew, he also started a charity using Fred's image to raise money for programs that help HIV-positive teens.
He continued to share his story, even with strangers on Fred's charity website. And Garofalo began to realize that he was far from the only person with HIV — or any number of other diseases — who'd been helped by a dog. And in that human-canine bond, he saw new purpose and an opportunity to grow his charity's reach.
He began a project called "When Dogs Heal," with the help of a dog photographer named Jesse Freidin and a Chicago-based writer named Zach Stafford. It tells the stories of HIV-positive people and their dogs in an exhibit launching in Chicago on Tuesday, Dec. 1, which is World AIDS Day, and also in New York City two days later.
Having recently turned 50, and with all he's been through, Garofalo says he's grown a lot — and now sees his HIV patients in a much less academic manner.
"Now I approach it in a very different way because it comes from my soul," he says.
Even amid his personal distress, he says he somehow managed to keep his career on track. He now heads the Center for Gender, Sexuality and HIV Prevention at Lurie Children's Hospital.
"Rob is a hero," says the Rev. Stan Sloan, CEO of Chicago House, an organization that provides homeless services to HIV-positive people and others. "And Fred has been a critical part of that."
An HIV-positive teen in Los Angeles recently wrote Garofalo a letter to thank him and his Fred-inspired charity for providing money so he could buy a much-needed pair of shoes.
"The initiative you started because of a dream, a prayer and a dog has blessed me," the teen wrote.
Garofalo says he owes it all to Fred, whose portrait with his owner will appear in the exhibit. It is an impact his mom saw take hold almost immediately when her son visited with Fred in the spring of 2010, after that Christmas visit.