Ghost writing or editing?

Sometimes I get sent a manuscript that really should not have been accepted.

Bradley and Kevin strolled towards the exit of the school. They walked out of he main entrance into the clean, cool air, it's a relief after being inside half of the afternoon. . .
Bradley and Kevin continued walking through the busy corridors. They looked up at Max and Eric, who stood by the entrance of the school, ready to leave. . . He pushed the door open and felt the hot air blow onto his face from the sub. . .
Bradley laughed as he continued towards the exit of the school. 

Yes, the protagonist just left the school three times in one page of text. Not only were events written multiple times, but the tense changed from past to present, the narrator switched between first and third person, the characters were inconsistent, and the punctuation was frankly atrocious. I realized after editing about five pages in an hour that I would never be able to do a satisfactory copy edit in the prescribed time, and I wasn't even sure a mere copy edit would help the manuscript--it needed serious developmental help.

So I asked my managing editors if they wanted it back, and they said the imprint editor was unresponsive and that I could make any changes I thought appropriate (the benefits of sticking with a press for multiple years!). Thus began my adventure in rewriting an entire manuscript.

After almost four weeks of working until smoke came out of my brain, I had reduced the manuscript to 200 pages and created a feasible plot line. I was proud of maintaining the author's story line (for the most part), characters (even the ones I didn't like), and voice as much as possible.

It was a similar experience to working with my Italian author--he hands me a few pages of written-out text that I then type up in proper English (not instead of non, etc.). Except in that case I get paid and only have to do six to ten pages at a time ;)

Now that it's over, I think I should either be a co-author on the book and/or put ghost writer on my resume.