Autism's Harsh Reality: The Death of Harry Horne-Roberts
By John Stone
The parents of Harry, Jennie and Keith, have issued the following press release:
Harry Horne-Roberts born 29th June 1989, had been in the care of the London Borough of Islington since August 2007, as his ageing parents Jennie, a Barrister and Keith, an Architect, could no longer keep him safely at home. He lived near them in supported accommodation and they took him on outings 4-5 times per week. They are described by his Daycentre as 'brilliant, devoted parents'.
Harry was described by the Tavistock Centre in London as highly intelligent. He became autistic aged 1 having received the MMR jab then. He was however an outstanding artist and musician and had already had many exhibitions in London.
Harry sometimes became anxious and would then be noisy, sometimes staying awake late. Jennie and Keith discovered to their horror after his death that his medication, which they had thought was a tranquillizer such as valium, was in fact Chlorpromazine a dangerous anti-psychotic drug which can cause sudden death and heart failure. He had been taking 150 mgs. of this per day. His parents tried to visit his psychiatrist but were cut out of his health care and received no replies to their several letter to Dr. Jaydeokar of Haringey LDP (Learning Disability Partnership) near Harry's care home.
Harry died in his sleep of heart failure on the morning of 16th December 2009, having been healthy and active when his parents took him for a walk in Epping Forest two days before. He was physically healthy and had had only two colds in his life. He was overweight, about 20 stone, which is an additional reason why he should not have been prescribed any anti-psychotic medication (as these increase weight).He was certainly NOT psychotic. He had late onset autism with its accompanying anxieties. He should have been helped, not given chemical cosh which resulted in his death.
His parents are utterly devastated as well as grief-stricken. Everybody loved Harry who was a very special boy.
Is Britain now a fascist murdering state? It would seem so. Many others may have died, and more be still at risk.
Our most beloved and talented son Harry R.I.P.
Jennifer and Keith Horne-Roberts.
Jennie and Keith are successful professional people. After the UK MMR litigation collapsed in 2004 it was Jennie who as a barrister-attorney led an appeal over ten of the cases, including Harry’s, to the European court. It is utterly dismaying that parents of this level of competence, not to mention legal and advocacy skills – with their utter devotion to their child – could simply be cut out of the consultation process regarding his health and well-being because he had become an adult. And then we see the kinds of decision which were made for Harry on his behalf by the faceless ones, which were apparently to cost him his life. Even if we can half protect our children from this sort of thing while we are alive, how can we do so after we are gone?
Of course anti-psychotic drugs are quite widely used for non psychotic conditions but chlorpromazine, the original chemical lobotomiser from the early 1950s, with its highly sedative effect (and far more general side effects than later products) is a surprising choice. Nor, if we are giving such drugs to young people just out of school is this any prescription for life: it looks as if Harry paid the ultimate price at 20, but the long term effects for those that survive are potentially awful indeed. To prescribe such a drug rather than to meet a young adult’s special needs is an admission of institutional failure.
I do not know the full story of this appalling affair, but I am quite sure that if Jennie and Keith believed that it could be properly resolved by normal routes they would not be acting as they are now. Their quest for change deserves all our support.
John Stone is UK Contributor for Age of Autism
"Is Britain now a fascist murdering state?"
Yes, and it's called PHARMAFASCISM, and the US and Britain are allies.
Posted by: michael framson | April 21, 2010 at 03:31 PM
A report about Harry's death in our local newspaper has just appeared on-line:
http://tinyurl.com/yeujrla
Posted by: John Stone | January 07, 2010 at 09:23 AM
Let me take you somewhere more rational.
Harry attended a Day Service in North London.
http://www.hoffmannfoundation.org.uk/default.aspx?Page=44
Posted by: Hoffmann Foundation | January 04, 2010 at 05:36 PM
Gatogorra:
You are a perfect example of the silver lining to this ASD/vax/meds cloud over society. People power. People educating themselves, and passing it on to others, bypassing the Establishment's normal chokepoints.
Well done, A of Aers.
Posted by: Stan | December 30, 2009 at 07:22 PM
I believe that it is imperative that parents/others that wish to represent the interests of their autistic son/daughter/other maintain as close a link/control of outside influences (care homes, local authorities, medical facilities etc.) as possible.
For a child this is obviously much easier, although the extraordinarily powerful medical and social systems can make this difficult even where children are concerned. Their opinion is often given far too much weight based on a false assumption that they have expertise extending beyond their particular subject through to its applications to any recipient. eg a psychiatrist is assumed to be an expert not only in the prescribing of a drug (an honest psychiatrist would recognise his/her limitations in that respect, but too many are either deluded as to their expertise or ignore their limitations), but to it's probable effects on any recipient - yet the science tells us they cannot possibly know what effects a medication will have on any particular patient. It is therefore ESSENTIAL that any patient provides FULLY INFORMED CONSENT before any prescription is given - to be fully informed one needs to be capable of fully assessing the probable risks/benefits to THE INDIVIDUAL. Autism often precludes this, not only where CAPACITY (with respect to the Mental Capacity Act 2005) does not exist but also where CAPACITY might exist, and capacity must be relative to the CONSENT required; eg. choice of food or what to wear may not be difficult to consent to, but choice of medication is inherently VERY difficult, even for the non-autistic, not only because pharmaceuticals are generally poorly understood even by the manufacturers let alone physicians. Therefore parents/representatives MUST partake in any "prescribed" intervention social or medical whenever possible. I found the best way is to maintain from childhood through adulthood a close relationship with ANY authority/residence/medical/social process for our son (now 27 yrs) - at times meeting typically arrogant difficult "authoritarian" opposition (often the nurse rather than the doctor, the clerk rather than the manager) and, knowing how much reduced is the authority of the parent of a vulnerable adult as compared to when a child, it may be necessary to "shout" the loudest at those who fail to listen, keep pressure up on all participants to know and be a part of any determination for him, write everything down and hold every party to their described responsibilities, and not give in or up as these are our kids - no matter their age.
As for the UK Deputyship, we hear it has been/is to be improved. We spent 18 months supported by a solicitor, eventually playing close on £3000 FOR NOTHING but wasteful incompetence and apparent intransigence on the part of the solicitor and Court of Protection and Office of the Public Guardian. At the outset we were warned it was all about MONEY, not CARE, despite the two specific Deputyship types. Although our solicitor understood the importance of a CARE component it became clear that the COP was represented by lawyers for whom nothing other than MONEY seemed to register. It may be that if family carry some weight representing their vulnerable adult already with the local authorities they may best avoid the potentially inhibiting (and financially expensive) Deputyship in favour of insisteing on representing their "child" at any process - even with Deputyship one is probably only another ONE of the joint decision makers, albeit with perhaps greater automatic access to certain documents (and that can be valuable depending on the issue); I doubt that a decision on which drug is prescribed will aford beter outcome if a Deputy than an informed representative parent - the Mental Capacity Act actually specifes close family as probable advocates before others.
Most important is that parents/families DO NOT leave decision-making to others for your children as invariably they have vested interests outside those specific to your kids, most familes put their kids first in this regard - those that do not (a minority no doubt) are probably the main reason why the State assumes so much power over our adult "kids". DO NOT be closed out by authorities; those with your kids interests at heart should be GRATEFUL to have you involved.
Posted by: Jack Hep | December 30, 2009 at 10:47 AM
It seems to me more and more that Washington seems to care about only two things, and two things only. Money, and Power! Even in my state, where I have been an advocate for many years now, in order to get any lawmakers attention about what is needed for adults on the spectrum I have to use phrases such as "possible future tax paying citizens (money)" and "Autism is a hot topic for adults on the spectrum and can bring in the votes" (power) I always feel sleezy after dealing with some of these people, like I want to take a shower for the next several days for having to stoop to thier level to get anything done!
Posted by: Darian (nickname) | December 30, 2009 at 09:00 AM
julie you are absolutely correct!
Posted by: bensmyson | December 30, 2009 at 06:18 AM
John-- I get this news even when I'm not paying attention because I signed up for the Alliance for Human Research's infomail service (here http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/300/152/ ). The founder of this watchdog organization, Vera Hassner Sharav, is the mother of a son who died from neuroleptics and as a Holocaust survivor. She testified against Eli Lilly in the Zyprexa Papers trial and often covers vaccine injury issues in the organization's blog.
This particular issue haunts me both because of so many death's like Harry Horne-Roberts, and because of the growing threat of drug mandates for the cognitively disabled. I can feel it bearing down on my own kids and wonder what's going to happen to parental and patient rights to reject the drugs in the long run, once the epidemic really hits the system. Like what's being seen in this tragedy, virtual drug mandates (no consent/no knowledge = forced drugging) are already here and have been for a long time. It can get much worse.
There are obvious monetary factors: industry kickbacks to "participating" facilities with high prescription rates and to professionals who make nice noises in print regarding the drugs take many forms-- speaker's fees, grants, publishing opportunities, favor in the embedded press, etc. Industry of course is making $16 billion a year from atypical antipsychotics alone.
Taxpayers get none of these benefits since the on-patent drugs cost a fortune, more than 24 hour wrap-around home services would in the end. On top of this, if you look at the health scourges caused since the inception of neuroleptics, taxpayers pay for the epidemic of drug injuries as well, which are now simply popularly thought of as separate diseases in their own right (such as diabetes and respiratory disorders among those prescribed neuroleptics; heart disease and worsening mental health among those prescribed Ritalin and antidepressants, schizophrenics with three times the relapse rate as in countries which can't afford to drugs, etc.). But those providing behavioral therapies and care offer no continuing profits to powerful industry, no kickback to politicians or profits to those who ghost-write studies on "effectiveness" of certain treatments.
Then there's a problem with inculcation among the public and those making healthcare decisions: with 1/10 regular walking-around adults in the US taking antidepressants and an even higher rate of healthcare/mental healthcare professionals on them, many have an attitude that if drugs work for them, then all drugs must work for someone.
Everyone in the honeymoon phase of taking antidepressants or anxiolytics becomes, by some trick of the drugs' effects on the brain, walking promotional agents who recommend drugs for just about anything in the human condition. At least until the side effects start kicking in, but even then the meds are so terrifyingly addictive that some who take them remain "loyal" even as they're dying from chronic disease caused by the drugs themselves or as their lives become more and more unmanageable.
In that sense I think we've lost citizen power to stand up and object to the push to medicate the disabled in particular. And as far as those in authority to approve or distribute the drugs, I can't help thinking how ironic it is that being on drugs really helps in overlooking...the evidence of horrific side effect profiles or the tragedies caused by the drugs.
For those in top decision making positions, money and power are obviously enough of an incentive. Thomas Insel's job regarding autism is to make sure that drug algorithms get attached to IACC and that the NIMH properly promotes on-patent drugs for autism. This will ensure him a position as stellar as Julie Gerberding's after he leaves the NIMH.
Fighting for informed consent, freedom of choice regarding drugs and drug-free options is going to be one of the biggest battles that the vaccine injury community faces after the fight for vaccine safety and recognition of victims.
We have to work against the completely false popular notion that the drugs have clinical benefits like, say, insulin for diabetes. No brain chemical was ever "corrected" by a psychiatric drug and anything anyone read supporting the idea of brain chemical correction got it from long-ago debunked industry PR which still passes for "fact" in the press.
At best some drugs may work as temporary emotional and physical pain killers. Very few people know that neuroleptics are sometimes used for nonpsychiatric chronic pain from certain conditions and the early "improvements" they may see in children exposed to the drugs may simply be a result of this effect (before much worse pain is induced by tardive dyskinesia and drug induced dystonia, migraines, worsening GI disorders, etc.).
The public needs to understand the "no better than pain killers" view in order for our children to be safe from forced treatment because pain killers can't be mandated and doctors can go to jail for overprescribing.
The drugs will always be available to those who want them: people who opt for drug treatments needn't worry that the fight to expose side effects and uncover research fraud will remove most drugs from the market, though it may ensure that they and no one else will have to endure unconcented drug cocktails being forced down their throats, hidden in their food or injected in their sleep.
I feel sick about what happened to Harry Horne-Roberts and I wonder if his parents will ever stop having nightmares. Since I can't wish the clocks to turn back, I wish them peace. They did all they could and turned out to be fighting a bigger monster than most currently appreciate.
Posted by: Gatogorra | December 30, 2009 at 12:50 AM
R.I.P.
I can hear the english, thou: "Just another overdose, luv. They should be happy ANYone took that kid in."
MAKE AUTISM STOP
Posted by: MAKE AUTISM STOP | December 29, 2009 at 09:58 PM
Bensmyson, that is a great post, but I disagree with one thing you said. 99% of kids are not benefiting from our children's sacrifice. I believe that ALL children who are being vaccinated according to the current American schedule are being damaged in some way. Seizures, asthma, ADHD, allergies, ruined immune systems, maybe even childhood cancer. Kids did not used to be like this.
Posted by: julie | December 29, 2009 at 09:09 PM
Bensmyson
We have been at this point so often before in human history - people turrning blind eyes, others unable to conceive they may be doing much harm, others cynical and profiteering, or a mixture of all three. Simply in order to do their job they often have to engage in massive self-delusion or denial of obvious truths. How often you have to confront the sarcastic charge of being "a conspiracy theorist", but by and large this is what people do if they drop their political guard.
Posted by: John Stone | December 29, 2009 at 06:27 PM
@ stan
You said: " And money is made on their meds anyway, which is good, because it's good for the economy. Meaning, that it creates jobs, in the drug & medical industries; and that money trickles down to be of benefit to the peasants as well, because, well, we all know of the trickle down theory, don't we. So there is a net benefit to society this way."
It is also my belief that there is just such a reason why our children are sacrificed. There is no justice, no compassion, no sense of wrong. 99% of the children will suffer no damages, 99% of all parents feel no heartache, 99% of world benefits from our child's victimization. They are economic generators, they are veal, they feed off of them at banquets and toss their bones to the pigs.
Between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, the U.S. Public Health Service conducted a conspiratorial experiment on nearly 400 African American men suffering from syphilis.
After penicillin was found to be an effective treatment for syphilis, the study continued for another 25 years without treating those suffering from the disease. It is not known the full damage and suffering caused by this "experiment." What is known is that members of the black community aided in the program. Perhaps they were deceived into complicity, perhaps they were handsomely paid to betray the public trust. Nurse Eunice Rivers, an African-American trained at Tuskegee Institute was recruited at the start of the study. She continued lying to subjects for 40 years as she worked recruiting and "treating" these men. Black institutions and local black doctors also participated. No different than some of our own "advocates" sitting on commissions and heading organizations, steering the public in a particular direction to benefit a particular atrocity.
The government is capable of carrying on such a murderous conspiracy for 40 years, why is it not capable when it comes to autism?
Since Tuskegee research has become a for-profit industry, and the resulting financial conflicts of interest jeopardize human subjects, patients, and the future role of academic medical institutions.
Unfortunately, prior work has demonstrated that investigators can be unduly influenced by a financial connection to an industry sponsor, resulting in biased science. In a prior review of 107 controlled clinical trials, Davidson reported that 89% of the industry supported trials had a positive outcome, in comparison to only 61% of the non-industry supported trials. More recently, another review of 136 randomized trials found that industry sponsored trials were not only more likely to yield positive results (74% vs. 47% for non-industry studies), but also more likely to use placebo rather than active agent as the treatment for the comparison group.
In Tuskegee the men subjected themselves to the study for hot meals and a proper burial. Today our children are subjected to a global experimentation tied to profits, this makes Tuskegee look like a misdemeanor in comparison.
In the US South, throughout the the 1960s and 1970s, federally funded welfare state programs underwrote the coercive sterilization of thousands of poor black women. Under threat of termination of welfare benefits or denial of medical care, many black women “consented” to sterilization procedures. Within southern black communities knowledge of the routine imposition of non-consensual and medically-unnecessary sterilization on black women was well known – a practice so common it came to be known as a “Mississippi appendectomy.” Roberts, Dorothy. 1997. Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty.
"To the victims and families of this regrettable episode in North Carolina's past, I extend my sincere apologies and want to assure them that we will not forget what they have endured."
--North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, apologizing on behalf of his state for the sterilizations of 7,600 people during the last century (April 17, 2003)
Over 65,000 in the US.
The NC Eugenics Board, established in 1933, remained operative in North Carolina until the early 1970s. Even as late as 1980, a North Carolina court authorized the involuntary sterilization of a woman diagnosed with mild retardation.
Think the government gives a damn about you and your child?
Posted by: bensmyson | December 29, 2009 at 05:35 PM
P.S. I won't even get into the need of our erstwhile masters for the vaccine tool, for the likes of administering anti-fertility agents into the populace. Or whatever they choose to put in them.
Speaking of the harsh reality of what we're up against here.
My condolences to Jennie and Keith for their loss. May their experience, and statement to the world, reverberate long, and loud, and clear, in being picked up by other parents doing such good work for their children; and in that individual service, for us all.
Posted by: Stan | December 29, 2009 at 01:21 PM
First they damage our children with un-safe vaccines and then the pharmaceutical companies make more money on prescribing Ritalin and anti psychotic drugs etc plus all the other ailments that we suffer as side effects. My son Jack was one of the children looking for justice and Jennie tried to help him
http://www.horne-roberts.co.uk/ebook/ACCESS_to_JUSTICE.html
Posted by: Joan Campbell | December 29, 2009 at 01:18 PM
Janice
I hate to disillusion you, but you're not considering the (demonstrated) mentality of these people, our erstwhile masters. They have stonewalled as long as they can, to keep the vax schedule from being threatened. It's all for the greater good, you must understand. All children must be vaccinated, and as often as possible; including those with a predisposition to be damaged by them (which is beginning to be discovered, by the persistent work of many parents of kids on the spectrum) because it would be too much trouble to separate them out from the herd (which is, of course, what we're talking about). And money is made on their meds anyway, which is good, because it's good for the economy. Meaning, that it creates jobs, in the drug & medical industries; and that money trickles down to be of benefit to the peasants as well, because, well, we all know of the trickle down theory, don't we. So there is a net benefit to society this way.
Now if the state has to start taking care of these kids; or the parents are going to start breaking through into the judicial system in large numbers...well; that just won't work.
You DO understand, don't you.
That's a good parent.
Now where's that heart failure drug - er, that sedative......
Posted by: Stan | December 29, 2009 at 01:08 PM
This truly burns my heart, and is a part of why I am in the field I am in! This is outrageous!! If this young man was not his own guardian as it seems, and the parents seemed to exercise a role in his care, how is it they were able to give him these meds without informing the parents?! Dispecable!! That could get you sued into the ground in my state!!
This has to stop!! People on the spectrum do not do well on those kinds of drugs usually! People need to understand behaviors can come from us simply trying to communicate, epsecially if we are on the lower part of the spectrum! This does not need medication, it needs someone trying to figure out what the person with autism is trying to communicate!!
People need to take the time to do this instead of throwing medication at the problem all the time!! For example, at work, I get cases sent in from habilitation centers saying someone on the spectrum doesn't like having others in thier room. People go in thier room, person on spectrum has behaviors. Instead of dealing with room issue, person is put into restraint and thier medication is increased! It's a nightmare!!
Bad medicine caused this damn problem to begin with, more bad medicine will not correct it!!
Posted by: Darian (nickname) | December 29, 2009 at 12:02 PM
What a horribly tragic event. I am so sorry for this family. I hope that this terrible story can change this barbaric practice - "It is utterly dismaying that parents of this level of competence, not to mention legal and advocacy skills – with their utter devotion to their child – could simply be cut out of the consultation process regarding his health and well-being because he had become an adult. And then we see the kinds of decision which were made for Harry on his behalf by the faceless ones, which were apparently to cost him his life."
What is that and how is it possible in the world today!?
Also, my heart goes out to Eileen Nicole Simon. I read a lot on your site and saw the pictures of Conrad. Words can not describe the amount of painful, trail-blazing, emotional, physical, and spiritual feelings that emanate there. I would do the same and please know you have soul sisters and brothers here who are with you as you continue your journey- like us who want answers and relief from our daily worries and unknown future.
The amount of injustice and pain that autism has delivered since it's 1930's arrival is so sorrowful.
Posted by: Teresa Conrick | December 29, 2009 at 10:39 AM
Eileen
Thanks for sharing Conrad's tragic story - let's hope before another 15 years elapses that this is a chapter of history we can bring to an end.
John
Posted by: John Stone | December 29, 2009 at 10:38 AM
My heart goes out to the family of this brilliant young man whose life was tragically cut short. My son is also in his twenties and I can only imagine the extreme grief of these parents. The use of dangerous therapies for people with autism must be stopped before we lose many more innocent young lives.
Posted by: Gayle | December 29, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Gatogorra
Thanks - I had missed this extraordinary admission by a British Government minister. Funny how the projected figure of 1800 deaths is based on being 1% of 180,000 patients. 1% always seems like a safe sort figure to admit to, except in this case when you do the simple calculation of how many that would mean.
Today, Gordon & co have been protesting at the truly repulsive execution of a mentally sick British citizen by the Chinese "justice system"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8433704.stm
- they can suddenly look liberal and decent while they quietly continue to cull our disabled population at home, and look for cheap and scarcely humane solutions to the problems they have largely created (while also, by the way, presiding over the dismantling of our justice system).
Posted by: John Stone | December 29, 2009 at 09:34 AM
Did you say 150 milligrams per day? My son Conrad died from 1500 milligrams per day. See his story at:
http://www.conradsimon.org/Conrad.html#death
We should have had the psychiatrist tried for murder, but the legal system was too cumbersome for us to handle especially in the midst of out grief. It will be 15 years on January 17 that Conrad died and I still grieve his loss.
Posted by: Eileen Nicole Simon | December 29, 2009 at 09:01 AM
Janice
You raise an interesting question - our son is also 17 now and we are looking at the Court of Protection, but we know some repsonsible parents who have not gone down this line, and others who have who have not found it particularly helpful. The problem is that it does just leave you as a deputy of the court rather than a free agent advocating for your child - it is also a costly route, which might be alright if it worked - but it would obviously be interesting to know what other British posters know about this.
John
Posted by: John Stone | December 29, 2009 at 08:24 AM
Thank you for posting this, John. There are an estimated 1800 deaths from antipsychotics a year among dementia patients alone in the UK. Of course the only reason the Times reported it is because there was a govt. report:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6914003.ece
I'm sorry to hear that the UK is gaining on US rates of drugging, though at least the UK is reporting the deaths from these drugs among at least one population. You can't get straight reports of the death figures in the US, though they're bound to be far higher across the board. The AERS for drug deaths or other drug adverse events has been made deliberately inscrutable and impossible to navigate by the US FDA (I've tried: you have to hand count the reports from a PDF which is not organized by type of event or agent). This indicates a massive cover up, not better practices in the US.
Individuals with dementia apparently have many of the same lab findings as autism, so the equivocating isn't apples and oranges. Some the health issues associated with many people with dementia, which in the modern age are often considered to simply be symptoms of dementia itself, are actually the effects of these drugs.
My sister quit nursing a few years ago after a stint in a nursing home. As she put it, she refused to participate in protracted murder: it was all flu shots and antipsychotics.
Posted by: Gatogorra | December 29, 2009 at 08:09 AM
Jennifer Horne-Roberts fought heroically against the vaccine manufacturers that included allegations that "information has recently come to light which has led some of the claimants to contend that the judge who decided the claim for judicial review of the decision of the Funding Review Committee of the Legal Services Commission to uphold the discharge of the legal aid certificate of one of the original lead claimants may have had a conflict of interest, or should at least have disclosed the possibility that he had a conflict of interest. " Mr. Justice Keith - Royal Courts of Justice 8 June 2007
Basically all litigation was squashed due to lack of public funding rather than the lack of evidence supporting the plaintiff's claims of injury.
" The reason why the claims have not been allowed to proceed is because everyone has realistically recognised for some time that it is just not practicable for the claims to proceed without public funding. With no realistic prospect of public funding being restored for any of the claims save for the two which are now to proceed as unitary actions, the dissolution of the litigation became inevitable. " Mr. Justice Keith - Royal Courts of Justice 8 June 2007
I suspect poor Harry succombed to an injury suffered 19 years ago after a vaccination. His death should be investigated as a homicide.
Posted by: bensmyson | December 29, 2009 at 07:24 AM
Thank you John for this heartbreaking article. We can only imagine the pain, anger and grief Harry's parents must be feeling at this time. I send my deepest sympathy to them and their family.
The use and abuse of antipsychotic drugs - in fact all types of psychotropic medication - in autistic people is horrifying. Even more so as the prescribing doctors are so ignorant of the fact that people on the autism spectrum are unable to process drugs as other people might. This leads autistic people to present with sometimes bizarre and often dangerous side effects. The drugs in time can exacerbate possible underlying predispositions, such as self-harm, aggression, depression, seizure activity and any other existing susceptibilities.
Why are psychiatrists so unaware of this?
Why are they not researching this issue?
This talented young man has lost his life because of their lack of knowledge and lack of constant supervision of the effects of a drug, which by the sounds of it, he should not have been given in the first place.
As John points out, there is now a tidal wave of autistic people approaching adulthood and the question of drug use has to be addressed before many more lose their lives.
Posted by: Seonaid | December 29, 2009 at 06:48 AM
R.I.P. Harry forever in our prayers and thoughts.God Bless Jennie and Keith..
Posted by: Angus Files | December 29, 2009 at 06:14 AM
Our utmost condolences to Keith Jennie and Francesca.
We are currently applying to the Court of Protection to become Legal Deputy for our 17 year old son who suffers with Autism in the hope of protceting him from this type of abuse.
The problem here again is money. Our and other governments just do not have the resources to finance the amount of children and young people who make up the pandemic of Autism, we can only hope that it will be this lack of funding that forces these governments to look for the real culprits that have caused this horrific tragedy in communities across the world. Then and only then we will see justice and proper provision.
Posted by: Janice Percival | December 29, 2009 at 04:20 AM
Wow... That is truly a heart rending and frightening story. My own son is 6 years old and the thought that he could easily be given a medication like this is just too much to comprehend. To the family and friends of Harry, please accept our condolences and know that the world is praying for you tonight.
Posted by: Larry Ray Palmer | December 29, 2009 at 02:34 AM