August Chazan-Gabbard
March 5, 1999 – October 15, 2013

August was born on March 5 of 1999 at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center and moved with his family to Jacksonville, Florida, in 2001. He attended the Mt. Herman Exceptional Student Center during the day and the DLC Nurse & Learn after school and during holiday breaks. He passed away on October 15, 2013, at Wolfson Children’s Hospital.

To see video and pictures of August, go to A Boy Named August

Chris Gabbard’s book about him, A Life Beyond Reason: A Disabled Boy and His Father’s Enlightenment, from Beacon Press, came out in May 2020.

“A poignant, powerfully written story of a radically mismanaged delivery at a major medical institution as well as the painful yet paradoxically luminous consequences of that catastrophe. Simultaneously a timely exploration of medical error, a moving disability memoir, and an elegy for the blithe spirit of a much-loved child, Gabbard’s book will be must reading not only for investigators of medical malpractice and theorists of disability but also for all who are awed by the intensity of parental devotion.”—Sandra M. Gilbert, author of Death’s Door and co-author of The Madwoman in the Attic

Available in audiobook, hardback, softcover, Kindle, and Nook

Order through:

Beacon Press

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

University of North Florida English professor Chris Gabbard with his son August at their home in Jacksonville, FL, in 2010 (Photo by Matt Stroshane)