FINAL FOUR WAS THE DREAM : MINUTEMEN STAR HAS `HARRY THE ANGEL' KEEPING CLOSE EYE.Byline: Jeff Donn Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. As Harry Tambolleo wasted away in a hospital, in the final stages of a lifelong disease that would soon kill him, he struck up a friendship with another patient. The Tambolleo family says Harry will be there in spirit as that new friend, basketball star Marcus Camby, leads Massachusetts against Kentucky on Saturday in the NCAA NCAA abbr. National Collegiate Athletic Association Final Four. ``I'm going to be looking to see if I can see Harry drifting around,'' said his father, Anthony Tambolleo, 54, of Sterling, a hair salon owner who intends to watch the game on television. ``There will be more than five players. There will be six. And that sixth player will be Harry.'' Harry Tambolleo (pronounced Tahm-BOWL-ay-o) is named Anthony, like his father, but nicknamed Harry. Sick since age 5 with the immune system immune system Cells, cell products, organs, and structures of the body involved in the detection and destruction of foreign invaders, such as bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Immunity is based on the system's ability to launch a defense against such invaders. disease lupus lupus (l  `pəs), noninfectious chronic disease in which antibodies in an individual's immune system attack the body's own substances. , he survived
two kidney transplants. In mid-January, at age 23, he was suffering
through his last weeks, tethered Attached to a data or power source by wire or fiber. Contrast with untethered. several hours a day to a
kidney-dialysis machine at the University of Massachusetts The system includes UMass Amherst, UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth (affiliated with Cape Cod Community College), UMass Lowell, and the UMass Medical School. It also has an online school called UMassOnline. Medical
Center in Worcester.
He turned to televised sports for whatever respite they could supply. As a sports junkie junkie Popular health A popular term for a person, usually an IV narcotic abusing addict, whose life is disorganized vis-á-vis family and societal structure, whose existence revolves around obtaining–often through theft, prostitution or other illicit and longtime patient at the university hospital, it was probably inevitable he would become one of the most whole-hearted fans of the Amherst campus' top-ranked basketball team. When Camby, the team's center and perhaps the nation's premier college player, collapsed before a game and came to the Medical Center for tests on Jan. 15, Tambolleo daydreamed of sharing a room with him. Camby did move in down the hall, but nurses kept Tambolleo away. The next day, without fanfare, the 6-foot-11, 220-pound player suddenly filled the door frame of the room occupied by 5-foot, 60-pound Tambolleo. Camby likely took him for a teen-ager, small and emaciated e·ma·ci·ate tr. & intr.v. e·ma·ci·at·ed, e·ma·ci·at·ing, e·ma·ci·ates To make or become extremely thin, especially as a result of starvation. as he was. ``When Marcus walked in, he thought he saw God,'' Tambolleo's father said. The two talked of basketball and their hopes of seeing Massachusetts in the Final Four. They talked about powerful Kentucky as a likely obstacle. Over the next four days of Camby's hospital stay, they talked and talked during three visits for a total of more than four hours, as Tambolleo's father recalled. Camby signed an autograph, bought a Camby team jersey downstairs, and gave it to Tambolleo. ``It meant the world to him,'' said Tambolleo's uncle, Robert Gallagher, of Westborough. ``He smiled when he talked about it.'' Camby left the hospital to play again. He has led Massachusetts to the brink of its first title. |
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