Autism, Water, Tragedy: Mohamed Fofana
The drowning death of Mohamed Fonana in Boston reminds me of WHY WE STILL PUBLISH.
Missing 4-year-old Mohamed Fofana found dead on Spectacle Island shore off South Boston
The autism epidemic grown, not changed, since we launched in 2007. Autism is dangerous, deadly even. And for those who would recoil from that idea, I say, "Ah, but it's true."
Another beautiful, small boy wandered away from family, in this case, his grandfather, and drowned. His tiny body pulled from the icy waters off Boston. Ginger Taylor used to run a blog called "Lives lost to autism," and I was an admin who added case after case from the news. We can imagine Mohamed's mother's grief. His grandfather's overwhelming guilt. Autism and wandering go hand in hand. A secret so many of us know too well. We send our condolences to the Fofana family. It's not enough. So we keep publishing.
This week, I received a "please unsubscribe" from a reader who was on our mailing list for 3 years. This happens from time to time, and I always comply immediately. Usually, the reader says, if anything, "I just get too many emails every day, thanks for what you do." This week's unsubscribe was less pleasant. From a SCIENTIST no less. Insert eye roll here.
Please unsubscribe me from your mailing list. Sending garbage that Robert Kennedy is pushing without scientific basis is not okay. I have an autistic grandson but are also scientists and this is a place that brings quackery to Autism awareness and improvement in outcomes.
Thank you
Tell you what, former subscriber, when children STOP being diagnosed with autism, stop drowning, stop suffering, then maybe we can ALL unsubscribe from AofA. Until then, we keep going.
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Missing 4-year-old Mohamed Fofana found dead on Spectacle Island shore off South Boston
SOUTH BOSTON - The desperate search for missing 4-year-old Mohamed Fofana of South Boston came to a tragic end Monday when his body was found.
Massachusetts State Police said one of their marine units spotted the boy on the shoreline of Spectacle Island around 12:30 p.m. Investigators found his blue shoe in the water.
Fofana was with his older sister and grandfather playing at a park on Castle Island around 7 p.m. Sunday near the water when he vanished. His grandfather Soleymane Fofana called 911.
"(Fofana's mother) said, 'It's Mother's Day, I'm a little tired. I don't want to go to the park or the beach.' And grandpa said, 'I'll come with you,' I guess. And so he feels very guilty, which is heartbreaking for him," said Erin Murphy, Boston city councilor at large.
Spectacle Island is directly across the water from Castle Island.
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Here's a Mother's Day Hat Trick of Skyhorse Publishing books from Helena Hjalmarsson.
Already Whole: Discovering the Sacred Within
Many of us have made our lives so noisy, overwhelming, sensory craving and data driven that we have somehow missed the most fundamental part about ourselves and our lives. Learning how to work with every process, every situation, every relationship intuitively; learning to love what is, to let go, to have faith and find stillness; to foster one’s intuition and become creative in our own lives is something we can all achieve. To illustrate these concepts, Hajlmarsson calls on her decades of experience and work as a psychotherapist. But most significantly, her life as an autism parent, accounted for in her previous books, Finding Lina 2013 and Beyond Autism 2019, which has taught her where to find that elusive freedom and harmony: inside herself. Hjalmarsson believes that the solution to life's chaos, this freedom and harmony—this love—is accessible to all.
Finding Lina: A Mother's Journey from Autism to Hope
Lina was a precocious toddler—charming, chatty, joyful. At the age of three, in the aftermath of her second MMR vaccine, first came a seizure, and then, to her parents’ horror, the loss of Lina’s ability to play, use language, and control her impulses. Over the next few years they continued to lose Lina. She communicated her acute discomfort by biting, screaming, hitting, laughing maniacally, and throwing violent tantrums. As a single mother, with the help of her ex-husband, Helena Hjalmarsson tirelessly pursued every possible avenue to find a diagnosis, and more importantly a treatment, for her daughter, and the search continues to this day.
Beyond Autism: My Life with Lina
A Passionate Memoir about Life with a Teenage Daughter with Severe Autism, Following the Progress of Acclaimed Book, Finding Lina. Like her passionate first book, Finding Lina, about her daughter with severe autism, Helena Hjalmarsson brings an intensity of purpose and love to her second memoir about Lina, Beyond Autism. Lina’s world is one of excruciating challenges. Helena’s world is the same, but with her own insights, indominable spirit, and amazing clarity she sheds light and hope for other parents, siblings and caretakers of children with autism, as well as the children with autism themselves.
One in 36/44/32/other uncommon statistical number? Really? HFA/mild autism/Mild PDD/Aspergers is not regressive or severe PDDNOS/classic autism/profound autism. Why lump them all together on one spectrum? Not all ASD clients are going to attend or graduate from high school/have good math skills or aren't severely dyscalculic/or will be able to tolerate a public-school classroom, public school enrollment is declining, and rightfully so.
https://www.ktvu.com/news/educators-rally-for-safer-classrooms-and-more-staff-after-being-injured-by-students.amp
"Back in 2018 while on a walk, I was physically attacked by an adult student because I told him not to pick up a sock, a dirty sock from the ground. Then he started to repeatedly hit me on my back non-stop with so much force," said Munoz. "
What's in store for these majorly/mainly severely handicapped adults? https://www.lossofbraintrust.com/post/new-jersey-almost-2m-for-autistic-adults
Not just HFA/Mild PDDs nor Aspergers: https://www.lossofbraintrust.com/post/walter-zahorodny-cases-of-profound-autism-are-increasing
https://www.lossofbraintrust.com/post/kissimmee-fl-3rd-autism-center-in-town-opens
https://www.lossofbraintrust.com/post/uk-lanarkshire-severely-autistic-5-y-o-denied-special-school-place-by-council
Posted by: Anonymous | May 22, 2023 at 08:03 PM
"I pray for the day that people really understand that not only are the pharma companies part of this mess, it is our very own government that is acting as a willing partner."
@Jill
You are correct. The relationship runs long and deep-from the Opium Wars to the CIA involvement after WW2. Drugs and slavery are still the economic engines of the world. I highly recommend this series of videos on the subject:
THE HISTORY OF THE CIA: Mafia Allies and the Beginning of the Global Drug Connection [pt. 3]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7PIZYi6k6A
Morphine, a derivative of opium, was introduced into the U.S. as a pain killer by German pharmaceutical giant, Merck, after the Civil war. An American offshoot of this same company makes a majority of the CDC recommended childhood vaccines in the U.S.
Posted by: Emmaphiladelphia | May 18, 2023 at 10:49 AM
Me too Marianna!
Posted by: Benedetta | May 17, 2023 at 07:52 PM
So this scientist waited three years to opt out?? Wow. Three years of not citing an opinion or asking a question about RFK? And what exact "quackery" is he/she talking about? There has never been an honest mainstream discussion/debate with fully transparent vaccine data. It is censorship or sweeping statements (vaccines are safe and effective; vaccines have been rigorously tested; correlation does not equal causation, etc.) to tune out what no one wants to admit. Ten minutes with the Vaccine Safety Data Link would be good. I still feel like Horton Hears a Who with us on the dust speck - our voices are blocked and our very presence mocked as absurd. I pray for the day that people really understand that not only are the pharma companies part of this mess, it is our very own government that is acting as a willing partner. I am hoping that the Covid vaccine debacle will open a lot more eyes.
Prayers for Fofana's family. And on Mother's Day. Good God.
Posted by: Jill in MI | May 17, 2023 at 04:23 PM
I agree that when children/adults stop being diagnosed with autism, stop drowning, stop having seizures, stop suffering, and the numbers of autism stop rising, we must continue to advocate for the medical community and medical researches from large and small biopharmaceutical companies to continue doing clinical trials on medications that have the potential to CURE the tragic condition of an autism diagnosis. We can never give up hope for our children and adults and may God give us the answer for a cure very soon. We have waited long enough.
Posted by: Gayle | May 17, 2023 at 11:22 AM
Given how colorist and ableist the media is on both sides of the political spectrum, I am surprised this news agency covered this sad story about an African descent child with autism drowning. Caregivers
who are parent and non-parent need training and electronic monitoring of the child a with autism to prevent these tragedies. About 'Lives lost to Autism" there is an even more disturbing site called "Autism Memeorial" about murder of those with autism and the death of those with autism from criminal neglect that comes close to murder in many people's minds.
Posted by: Bill | May 17, 2023 at 10:01 AM
RFK’s data has “no scientific basis”? Really? Doesn’t his latest book have an entire back section full of his backed up, resourced data?
Your “scientist” former subscriber said he has an autistic grandson. Which may mean that he’d have to face his own - and his profession’s - uncomfortable role in his grandson’s autism.
Methinks he doth protest too much …
Posted by: Marianna | May 17, 2023 at 09:10 AM