Mishaps of a successful physician, Tom Moretto, are chronicled as NINE LIVES provides a walk through his childhood from the time he was placed in the birthing crib to die before morning--to the cobalt treatments for his thyroid problem. Cars, guns, and boats led the way to hair-raising mishaps throughout his youth in rural Indiana. And jobs during his teens, twenties, and thirties couldn't squelch his orneriness and kept him flirting with disaster with his work-hard, play-hard philosophy. But the most serious challenge was the needless heart surgery resulting from a fluke. The story makes one shed a tear, as well as belly laugh as it reaches both ends of the emotional spectrum.