Diseases/Conditions

Autistic Boy’s Case Worsens: 22 Days in Pain & No Treatment

March 11, 2013 by admin in Featured with 42 Comments

The mistreatment of Alex continues. He’s in agony and receives NO treatment! The hospital postures, but there’s no neurologist, no gastroenterologist, and no autism specialist trying to help. He’s not even getting any tests. The autism community needs to respond. Will your child be next?

by Lisa Goes

Update: It’s over. Alex’s mother had no choice. She signed to avoid losing contact with her son. So the doctors will have their way – to drug Alex into oblivion. As if they actually care about him. They’ve made their point clear: Question their authority and you lose your child … and your child loses you.

This medical system created Alex and millions more. They’ve profited from their iatrogenics mightily, but when it comes down to it, all they really want to do is make sure that no one is even able to whimper after they’ve raked in their profits.

Will your child be next?

EMERGENCY UPDATE!! (Tuesday, 12 March 2013)

Alex’s mother is meeting with hospital officials today. She has been informed that she must sign and agree to everything they want to do to her son, or he will be removed from her custody and they will do it anyway. This is not just about Alex. This is about the future of your own right to refuse to allow a hospital or doctor to drug your child into oblivion. Speak out now!

Contact Vice President and CNE, Paula Hindel at 708-216-3802 to express your concerns for Alex’s care.

Let CEO, Larry M Goldberg know what is happening to voiceless children in Loyola’s healthcare system. 708-216-3215

This is Alex Spourdalakis, now 22 days at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois with debilitating GI pain. Everyone in the autism community should be horrified and galvanized to action by the lack of care he has received. Please contact the Joint Commission customer service line at: 630-792-5800. This is a governing body that accredits medical institutions.Politely tell them you are calling about the lack of medical care for Alex Spourdalakis in the Loyola Healthcare system. They need to receive as many calls as Loyola did 3 days ago. They need to know what is happening behind the doors of the institutions they are accrediting.

For background, read The Case of Alex Spourdalakis: Continued Ineptitude at Loyola University Medical Center and the original post, Hospital Locks Down Autistic Boy for 19 Days of Agony.

The members of AIM and Alex’s mother now fear for Alex’s life as the result of medical negligence at Loyola University Medical Center. If this was a typically developing child tests of every sort would be run to determine what is wrong. Alex is holding his stomach and his head, IN PAIN. Where is neurology? Where are the gastroenterologists? WHERE ARE THE “AUTISM SPECIALISTS”?

Where are the qualified medical physicians who CARE SO MUCH?! Day 22 for Alex Spourdalakis. His mother, Dorothy, has repeatedly shown good faith in the system she is trusting to help her son. She continues to follow the dictates of Loyola physicians. She has asked for a list of doctors and residents taking care of Alex and it has not been provided for her. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR FAVORED RADIO SHOWS AND NEWS PROGRAMS AND LET THEM KNOW THIS CANNOT CONTINUE. YOU CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN THIS CHILD’S LIFE

These are Alex’s drugs. Notice the Abilify? It’s a highly toxic drug that’s meant for schizophrenia. What are these doctors doing?!!!

What doctors are doing to “keep Alex safe”:

Tagged alex Spourdalakis, autism, autism loyola, conventional medicine, loyola hospital mistreatment, loyola hospital mistreats autistic boy, modern medicine

sondra

it makes me sad that he is of on so much medicine for a young man.. oh my gosh how this is of like my own life as a teen and young girl. it sickens of me .. if he would be of off half if not all he may be able to be more functional just in that alone… he is of not only restrained by those shackles but by medicine too. so sad
- / Heidi Stevenson
  
  That’s the purpose of those drugs. They’re nothing but chemical restraints. There is absolutely no justification for giving any psychiatric drug to an autistic child – and not much for anyone else, either.
http://www.facebook.com/lydia.wayman.3 Lydia Wayman

There are many GI conditions that cause severe pain for which pain meds are medically contraindicated. What does Alex have? Also, just because your experience has been bad with psych meds doesn’t mean they’re a horrible thing. I was in agony due to sensory issues and spent ten years like that before discovering a very off label use for a similar med as Abilify.
- / Heidi Stevenson
  
  Alex is autistic, and that says all that needs to be stated about it. Gastrointestinal issues are common with it.
  
  Abilify is absolutely not warranted in any autistic child. Any suggestion that it is is offensive.
- http://twitter.com/Kangofu_CB Christina
  
  I’d like to hear ONE acute gastrointestinal condition for which ALL medications to alleviate or manage pain is contraindicated.
  
  There are some KINDS of medications which may be contraindicated – such as NSAIDS for GI bleeds – but to say there is NOTHING they could give this child for his pain is absurd. There is no contraindication to treating pain in any patient – only varying degrees as to how much relief one might get from a medication which is both indicated and safe for your particular condition.
http://www.facebook.com/lydia.wayman.3 Lydia Wayman

Also, I take over 40 meds per day to stay alive… I’m 25. I’m not convinced we have the whole story is what I’m saying.
- / Heidi Stevenson
  
  I wish you well.
http://www.facebook.com/lydia.wayman.3 Lydia Wayman

I absolutely agree that he is being severely mistreated… Just saying that there are other things to think about.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=548185616 Marrona Shore

This is quite simply solved. Take him to a different hospital for treatment. Demand discharge which is within your right as a parent and take him to a different hospital. Chicago has tons of hospitals including children’s hospitals who will have the autism specialists you demand. As a nurse I highly doubt a patient has been in a hospital that costs more than a community hospital without any tests and given no pain medications. Loyola doesn’t keep patients for no reason while doing nothing. I know because they discharged my mother a week after getting stabbed in the neck. She had only been out of the ICU for two days when they discharged her. I don’t think we are getting the full story here. I also think this is a story written by an unhappy patient, student, or employee who just wants to cause problems for Loyola. If this was a true case then the mother and family would have contacted a malpractice lawyer a long time ago not brought in an autism advocate who has no clout.
- / Heidi Stevenson
  
  I don’t think you understand how things really work – especially for the parents of autistic children. Parents of autistic children are not given the same rights as other parents (though others are also losing their rights, too). The doctors only have to say that she was endangering her child, and she can be arrested for child abuse and have him taken from her – and then forcibly drugged into oblivion.
  
  Your mother isn’t autistic.
  
  The story is NOT written by patient, student, or employee. I know who wrote the story, and her interest is simple: She cares because she is also the mother of an autistic child and is very active in the arena. She is horrified by what she’s seeing – nothing more than that.
  
  If you knew anything about the reality of malpractice, then you would know that there is no way to even start such a case until AFTER harm can be shown. It is absolutely not an option at this point. Even if this child dies, the odds of getting any attorney to take such a case are slim to none. The reason is simple: It must be proven that the doctors did something outside the “standard of practice”. Who do you suppose determines that standard? It’s the doctors.
- http://www.facebook.com/shinkle3 Shawna Hinkle
  
  I’m with you. I don’t think we’re getting the whole story. The part about the Abilify was pretty clueless (Abilify is commonly used to treat aggression in people with ASD, as well as for depression, and anxiety), leading me believe the person that wrote this is being exaggerative about a lot of other things, too. Sorry, but the whole story doesn’t make sense, and I’ve been following it from the beginning.
  - / Heidi Stevenson
    
    You are justifying treating an autistic child with an antipsychotic? And effectively calling the author (whom I know) a liar?
    
    You are part of the problem.
- Abby Doodle
  
  Don’t know where you have been….but this is started to happen in Canada and the US. They are taking parental rights away from parents with genetic disorders.
- http://www.facebook.com/erinwright78 Erin McSwain Wright
  
  My husband and I chose to take our son out of the hospital AMA and were reported to DHS. Our son had a yeast infection and a minor upper respiratory infection that did not require hospitalization. We have everything needed for his care at home and still had to go through this. On top of that we were told that we could no longer be treated by our family physician group because we did not agree with one doctor (from another office that we never visited). Doctors can and do abuse their power and they won’t stop until they get their way even if that means taking your child away from you.
  - / Heidi Stevenson
    
    Thank you for setting the record straight. In the future, such mean-spirited commentary from people who are either shills or are just plain mean will be summarily removed.
    
    Again, Erin, thank you for your eye-opening commentary.
DebbyBruck

Does mother have video of son in hospital? Evidence needed for action.
- / Heidi Stevenson
  
  The photos by a third party aren’t enough?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Haven-DeLay/100001370933046 Haven DeLay

The problem and sad truth is that if the mother took this child to any other hospital, the other would be just as clueless – but one could hope they wouldn’t use restraints and psychotropic meds as this one has. I know I’d move heaven and earth to get my child out if he were in this situation. The ineptitude! There is a serious lack of autism education in medical schools. There is a SERIOUS lack of knowledge concerning the medical comorbidities in what is truly mislabeled “autism.” Once doctors hear this, they write the child off. We must change the name or this disease to more accurately reflect what it is! This is far more a biomedical disorder than a set of “behaviors!” Yet, they diagnosis it only by the behaviors. It’s ludicrous. It would be akin to referring to a person with cancer as having “malaise” and calling it malaise rather than what it is!
- / Heidi Stevenson
  
  The problems here go beyond lack of understanding. As of yesterday, the hospital had not done anything positive for this boy. They hadn’t even done any routine gastroenterological tests. It makes no difference what his diagnosis is. He clearly has intestinal problems, but the hospital has not investigated them.
marianne

If all of us wrote to Loyola hospital and asked what on earth they thought they were doing with this child, that could perhaps be more helpful for the mum and her son. There is no excuse for this treatment…..at all. Id there no hospital inspection authority that can be notified?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1133276920 Jackie Richardson

“UPDATE!: UNREAL!!!! This could be YOUR CHILD! NO FREEDOM! From: Lisa Joyce Goes

DOROTHY HAS JUST BEEN NOTIFIED BY HER PHYSICIAN THERE WILL BE A CARE
PLAN MEETING TODAY. SHE WAS NOTIFIED BY DCFS THAT IF SHE DOES NOT AGREE
TO EVERY SINGLE DETAIL IN THE HOSPITALS
PLAN OF CARE THEY WILL TAKE ALEX TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE
PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW GET ON THAT HOSPITAL AGAIN AND
EXPRESS YOUR OUTRAGE
NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- / Heidi Stevenson
  
  Thank you, Jackie. I’ve posted it in several places on Facebook. Please, please, do the same. Get the word out.
  
  This is not only about Alex. This is about whether doctors can force their will on parents, remove children, and then drug them into oblivion. If you don’t want it to happen to you and your child, then act now!
- Yvonne Morentin
  
  i live in CA, and i copied and pasted the link to this story for all my local news station, and I asked them to do a story on it. as a parent of 2 children with autism, this is my greatest fear…
Jenn

I am outraged!! This should not be happening to anyone much less a child. Do the doctors and care staff just not care?? What is wrong with them??
JeanNicol

Tell mom to contact Boston Children’s Hospital.
http://www.facebook.com/ben.berman69 Ben Berman

I have called several times only to get an answering machine.cowards won’t answer there phones now.
Steve

That young man needs hourly doses of silver hydrosol and aloe to heal his gut ravaged by the drugs, as well as selenium and zeolite to detoxify those poisons; follow up with One World Whey to spur glutathione production to help the elimination process.
http://www.facebook.com/kidhelperjesus Jennifer Graham

The State of Oregon has pretty good people in our children’s hospitals that includes the Schriners
I hope a member of the Schriners organization has had a chance to see this.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1199453460 Cynthia Hamilton

Called and left a detailed message and my # explaining why I was calling, and who for. Explained that his mother needs more info, and that Alex needs better care/specialists and that I’d be contacting the Joint commission along with MANY others in the Autism Community until the situation was fixed with him. I’m in SoCal and may not have a child with Autism but I do have a good friend who’s son is autistic and my own son has Down Syndrome… (sometimes they get dual dx’s)… hopefully speaking out against this injustice can get things fixed!!! He and his mom are in my prayers!
Lorrie White

I agree to some degree with Marrona Shore. I find it hard to believe that any parent can be made to do everything the doctors want or they child will be taken from her. My only other thought is, is this the way of our new health care system under ObamaCare?
http://www.facebook.com/mrs.scroggin Cee Cee Scroggin

This mother needs a lawyer…Now!…any lawyers out there?
amy

i myself am autistic and was never hospitalized but if they tried to do this to my kid, i would go all the way to supreme court to protest this. this isnt humane.
http://www.facebook.com/colleen.mia.1 AngelWings Mia

As an advocate on behalf of individuals with developmental disabilities and a paralegal who does advocate upon the individuals behalf’s I am questioning why this hospital has not done any tests to find out why this child is in the pain he is in?? What is their medical reasoning why they have not done their job? Like alot of hospitals they are not educated enough on how to deal with Autism either nor are they educated enough to know how to deal with individuals with any type of developmental disability I have seen it time and time again and over again. One reason that I do stand up to them in the hospitals!! Hospitals do not have the right to take an individuals right away to their health care or the parents right to do what is right for that child! Is there not an advocate advocating upon this child’s right besides Mom?? Is the court system not involved here to help Mom get the medical care this child needs? Trying to find an attorney that knows individuals rights is difficult as well. There is only one good one that advocated upon children’s behalf’s here in Ohio not to long ago where the children were in a foster care setting and being stuck in cages and locked up! I do know though here in Cleveland Ohio at Rainbows Babies and Children’s Hospital they specialize in this area of medical care so does Cleveland Clinic Love Doctor Reita Stephen if there is a way that we can get Mom help to move this child here to Cleveland I will be more then happy to help her with advocating on her son’s medical behalf! Not much I can do from Ohio as I don’t live in Chicago and don’t know how their laws apply there. Need to find her an attorney there that knows how to deal with individuals with developmental disabilities. Perhaps the county board of M.R.D.D. there can help her IDK if they are there and attempting to help her get the proper medical care for her son!! Working with individuals with Autism also it is clear just from the picture alone this child is in pain and needs to have proper medical care not to be thrown to the side like garbage because he is not!!! He may not be able to voice his opinion not sure if he can but what if he was given a computer and shown how to type his feelings… these individuals with Autism are more intelligent then the common person too! This is the kind of things that really irritate the crap out of me when I see hospitals doing what they feel like doing and not looking at the signs of what the individual is indicating how they are reacting with their pain they are having or even the expressions on their faces that also indicates they are in some type of pain!! What about sign language therapist being involved? Surely there has to be one from the county board that can be there to help identify and work with this child as well as communicate to the doctors the child’s needs! It is very clear that this child’s needs are not being met by this hospital and its staff!! Unfortunately not any of them have had any training outside of the hospital like working in the group homes with individuals to learn what is needed to be able to communicate with these individuals who can’t communicate like the rest of us can. However, there is other means of communication that these doctors and nurses are not using to communicate with this child like they should be doing!! This is just really shameful they are putting their own needs of making that money off the parents and or medicare/medicaid rather then helping this child to get out of the pain he is in!! I sooo wish I was there right now because they all would be getting a tounge lashing at them and made to do their jobs the right way!!
- http://www.facebook.com/colleen.mia.1 AngelWings Mia
  
  Oh also a physician cannot deny a patient the right to medical care!! This is what is going on here!! And if they do not want to provide medical care they are looking at a lawsuit in all aspects!! I would be threatening them with the medical lawsuit for failure to provide proper medical care and diagnosis of the patient this child is a patient they are supposed to be helping not causing undue misdiagnosis of the patient and undue hardship upon the child and family!!!
- http://www.facebook.com/colleen.mia.1 AngelWings Mia
  
  And putting anyone on that Abilify is one of the worst medications to have any individual on!! They also need to look at the list of meds to see what is the cause of the root of the GI pain. There may very well be one of the meds he is on interacting with another med causing the pain. If it is not the meds then they YES NEED TO BE DOING TESTS!!!! NOT MAKING MONEY!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/sandy.rosemurphy Sandy Rose-Murphy

Please contact m I might be able to help this mother and son!! We have been through this and you tech don’t have to sign him over to be drugged!! There ARE other options!!!
- / Heidi Stevenson
  
  Please tell us what other options exist.
Abby Doodle

Can’t we get notice to the Vatican. This is run by the Jesuits of which the new Pope is a member. He believes in caring for the people. So Loyola University is not holding to what Jesuits do.
- / Heidi Stevenson
  
  Your other message has been removed because it’s simply an advertisement for another hospital.
Abby Doodle

Trinity Health, the 10th largest health system in the nation and the fourth largest Catholic health care system in the country, is devoted to a ministry of healing and hope. Serving through a network of 47 acute-care hospitals, 432 outpatient facilities, 33 long-term care facilities, and numerous home health offices and hospice programs in ten states, Trinity Health draws on a rich and compassionate history of care extending beyond 140 years.

Trinity Health aims to be transformational, both in our ministry and operations as we adhere to and exceed national performance benchmarks. By working together, Trinity Health has become one of the strongest and most respected networks of not-for-profit community hospitals in the country. Our culture and operating model are focused solely on how we can create a superior patient care experience supported by operational and service excellence Serious Guys Being a Catholic we need to get Cardinals and Archdioces and necessary Vatican involved…..the new pope would not believe in separating mother and child.
- / Heidi Stevenson
  
  This message is being removed because it’s an advertisement for a hospital, not a legitimate comment.
Abby Doodle

Note if this child had a reaction to Depakoate the damn doctors need to read the black box warning put on there by the FDA. Reactions to Depakoate can be frontline indicators that the child has a urea cycle disorder the most common being OTC. Have the doctors run an ammonia test. The child probably is having spastic colon which is common with OTC. You treat with benyln to stop the spasms not with what they are doing. I believe this child has been misdiagnosed and may have a urea cycle disorder along with the autism. Many of the symptoms are treated differently under urea cycle disorder. I really want to write that whom ever the doctor was that knew he had the reaction on the depakoate and did not test for UCDs is the biggest DF in the world. The FDA requires this now when there are reactions!!! It happened to me.