Content area
Full Text
Hat Tricks from Heaven, The Story of an Athlete in His Own Prison of Addiction, is a story told with straightforward honesty, simple clarity and raw human emotion. Author, Kate Genovese, speaks from the heart as a mother, and with the authority of a nurse, as she unveils her life story and that of her son, Geno.
Christopher John Genovese, who preferred to be called Geno, was a popular, handsome star athlete, a private high school and college graduate, surrounded in life by friends and family, who became the victim of an accidental drug overdose at the age of thirty. This story is very timely, given the toll that the opioid epidemic has had on so many young people and those who love them, particularly in our home State of Massachusetts.
Geno suffered several injuries to his shoulders and knees, which led to multiple surgeries over many years. Percocet® would be legitimately prescribed for postoperative pain, but Geno continued to play football and hockey through the chronic pain and got to the point where he would self-medicate before games, and at intervals during them. His mother eventually began to notice that her own narcotics, which had been prescribed for her own post-operative pain, began to disappear, despite having hidden them. Over time, Percocet® became too expensive, so Geno moved on to cheaper heroin.
Like his older sister and brother, Geno was raised by parents who were attentive, loving and very much involved in their children's lives....