At least someone (the D.A.) realizes that this man needs help, not jail.After reading this story, it's the first time in my entire life, I can remember being ashamed of being an Oklahoman. If this is what it has come down to, Oklahoma is not O.K.
Just goes to show that Oklahoma has NOTHING for our autistic community. A little help would be nice.
Anyone listening............................
Hello........?

Skuwulfe,

Cream certainly rises to the top, but so does pond scum.

While glad a reasonable resolution has taken place, I do pity the ignorance of the two officers. It's entirely regrettable that they were kicked and scratched. It is perfectly understandable that they are unaware of the "hidden" disease.

I think all of us parents should personally blame Autism Speaks for incidents like this. They pocketed $875 million dollars in U.S. tax dollars and this kind of stuff still happens.

If Autism Speaks had spent just a fraction of unethical and immoral vaccine court expert testimony witness war chest on certainly ethical and moralistic purposes like law enforcement education we might not ever read of unfortunate incidents like this again.

Don't blame the cops. Blame Autism Speaks.

It's okay. I feel like I post here a lot, so I figured people would realize I wasn't serious. But I guess my username is a little too generic to be memorable.

Sorry Kristina

Our son, Eric has aggressions with no seizures to date. The Delaware police asked us if we wanted to press charges against him and put him in jail. My wife managed to get him back to the residential center (and prevent a disaster if he went to jail....we both said no to the police) while I went to the local hospital regarding my bleeding, broken right thumb in October 2009.

He is 25 years old.

My wife's sister has a daughter with autism and grand mal seizures.

She is about 23 years old.

Thank you Kim and Age of Autism for covering this difficult but important story. Professionals need to get with the program. Autism is not going away. The second tide of children with autism will be turning adult age soon. Our children, their medical problems and all accompanying issues need to be dealt with as a whole community - not just the parents and not just the autism community.

This kind of news story scares me. We were turned away from our local hospital when Ronan was five. He ended up in the ER 3x over the next 2 days--major dehydration after a procedure is most likely the culprit but I suspect the adverse affects of anesthesia coupled with mito issues.

Had the first hospital taken us in, we could have avoided three times the anxiety, stress, Ronan's pain and our disappointment yet again in the medical field. It was an overwhelming nightmare. Ronan was the opposite of Mr. Puckett--he could barely move, had trouble breathing, was incoherent and in such a sad state. My husband and I stayed strong and tried to keep the horrible 'what if' thoughts at bay since I was sure we were going to lose our son.

As we left the doctor's office knowing we had to get to an ER quickly, I'll never forget the call our pediatrician made trying desperately to get him into the local facility. Choice words were yelled on Ronan's behalf. We ended up in a hospital almost 2 hours away to get appropriate treatment. Then, we needed to go back to the ER two more times since Ronan never fully recovered. Makes me wonder what else we should have done back then....we know better for next time but pray there isn't going to have to be a next time trip to the ER.

Mark,

Thank you for that simplifying that. As the mother of a son who was vaccine damaged and had several nights where I had missing teeth, bite marks up and down my arms, bruising over my upper torso, and bald areas of scalp from hair being torn out, I sympathize with this mom.

I also lost my brother, who was six years older that me and who lived with AS and Epilepsy from the age of twelve, when he died in 1999 due to appropriate medical care while in a state hospital in MI.

That is why we do the work we do today via LEAN On Us. As an adult he was arrested numerous times and jailed for becoming compative with officers when they would respond when he had a seizure in public. He had a genuis IQ, his own business at one time, but lacked the ability to self advocate in a manner that was non-confrontational. He was ahead of his time, but that was also from having a father that ran for the MI Senate.

My brother's death was caused by a blood clot that went from his leg to his lungs and killed him. Due to his disability, he was not listened to. We were told he had a mental health disorder, however upon his death, and contribution to the Autism Tissue Program we discovered he had a three inch leision on this brain from his seizure disorder. That was what was causing his behavioral challenges and a simple MRI would have discovered that.

However today our efforts are to ensure our son, who now is a senior in high school and on the honor roll, but still has some significant challenges with his ASD, does not die as his uncle did.

I would urge parents on this list to think about why there are not proper supports for families in these situations. Why are individuals who are more vulnerable victimized often by those who are suppose to be their protectors? What can we do to prevent it? What we can do is start supporting families like those in these stories?

I really think we need to start an advocacy group that provides "the second line" support that other communities offer. So when "the first line" players need help, the second line players step in.

When my brother was hospitalized both my parents were chronically ill and also died within 18 months after my brothers death. Our son was also still very sick medically, but that guilt eats at me. My other family members though didn't feel like they could assist him and he died due to his disability, a death that could have been avoided.

We need to do more folks, or more individuals may die and they may be our children.

Respectfully,
Carolyn

I apologize. I thought it was clear I was being sarcastic. Clearly this man's problems far exceed being mildly socially awkward.

rileysmom is my kind of warrior!

The suggestion that childhood mumps is either deadly or dangerous is simply wrong. It's one of the least dangerous childhood illnesses, akin to chicken pox. But it is more dangerous when contracted later in life, especially for boys. So what mumps vaccination has done is to take a completely benign childhood illness and raise the risk that boys will be harmed later in life when mumps is more dangerous to them. And as we've seen in multiple recent outbreaks, the main reason for vulnerability later in life is that mumps vaccines frequently fail.

Kristina, Maybe your child is mildly socially awkward and happy but many are not. Why can't some people seem to understand that or do they simply not care? They are sick, with debilitating seizures, painful GI tract issues, debilitating anxiety where they cannot leave the house without extreme meltdowns. I'd take my child having the measles or mumps, for which treatment is available, over what he suffers with every day.

Kristina, the problem is... when your child is diagnosed with autism you don't get to pick the severity. I think we would all be OK with "...child be mildly socially awkward but otherwise happy and healthy," but once again we DON'T get to choose.

Shut up Kristina. Measles NOR mumps are deadly unless you're a door knob that doesn't know when to seek medical attention for your child. They can ALSO be treated NATURALLY at home. Perhaps YOU still live in a third world country??? Where there is no running water and you need to walk days to get to the nearest medical center??? When was the last time measles or mumps were deadly in the US? By the way you ignorant bitch, my child is not just "mildly socially awkward", he doesn't have a friend in the world because at 6 yrs, he is still non verbal. We just walked in the door from the hospital from running more labs to find out why my son's skin is falling off. We just got back from 3 days and 2 nights in a major US hospital hooked up to EEG monitors. We also just recently got the results back from an upper and lower GI procedure that says my child has fisures in his gut. AND since this is a site for parents that have the same issues with their child as I have with mine...Screw off and find somewhere else to vomit your bull shit.
On that note and getting back to the REAL story that this article pertains too...is this the kind of "care" my son gets to look forward too? Mental health system? Why? So they can drug him into submission?

You see in the picture that big cut on his forehead, I am sure it is from falling during a seizure.

So they could not control him in the hospital.
SO, ONCE HE WAS IN HANDCUFFS they could not treat him?
SO, ONCE HE WAS BEHIND BARS SOME MEDICAL PERSON DID NOT FOLLOW BEHIND AND TREAT HIM.

I hope his family sues their pants off.