Scary, scary, scary. As an adult who had childhood onset epilepsy [mild, thank Og], I can just imagine what it’s like for someone to have seizures even though you’re taking your medicine religiously.
And yes, you’re not supposed to outlive your child.
That sounds like it’s right out of the Larry King play book.
Nitpick: Sic is not an abbreviation.
Ultimate example: Madonna. She makes two feature films and a coffee-table book about her sex life, she has a baby and all of a sudden she wants privacy! :rolleyes:
I read he died from hitting his head on the bathtub. But he could’ve been sitting on the toliet and fell off and hit his head on the tub. Or any number of other things.
I doubt the kid was neglected in the strict sense of the word. The Travolta’s sounded like typical Hollywood parents. Lots of nannies and help, spend some time with them, leave and go shoot movies, come back. Maybe the parents aren’t around as much as they should (or could be) but the children most of the time have decent help in the form of nannies and such.
The issue, however, is if the kid was in the care of Scientologists or intelligent folks. I don’t know, because supposedly “high profile” Scientology folks like the Travolta’s are supposedly allowed to do whatever they want, so the kid could have been getting decent care. But if the Travolta’s strictly followed the Scientology bullshit, then odds are the kid wasn’t getting good treatment. I hope he was being treated by real medical professionals, but I wouldn’t be willing to bet on it.
Seizures themselves can be fatal, unfortunately. Rarely, but it can happen.
Bathrooms pose an added danger because every surface there is a hard surface. If someone has a seizure in a bathoom and collapses, chances are excellent that he’ll hit his head on something hard, possibly repeatedly depending on the type of seizure.
Scientologists are primarily against treatment for psychological disorders, not physical ones. (Those would be Christian Scientists.)
The rub is whether or not they consider seizures to be physical or psychological.
They’re as far from “typical Hollywood parents” as you can get. I’ve never read anything negative about them, with the exception of the Scientology thing. They are attentive, involved, hands-on people. They don’t do the party circuit. They are family oriented. Very sad story.
That said, someone upthread mentioned that Scientology doesn’t acknowledge mental disorders. My question: is seizure disorder ever related to autism, or were these two distinct problems?
CNN is People now? This was on their front page. I don’t disagree that what passes for “news” today is always something important, but John Travolta is a well-known personality and a tragedy in his personal life makes headlines. I remember when Paul Newman’s son died. It was also front page news, and that was 30 years ago or so.
I met John briefly once. He impressed me as being very down to earth and very much a family man.
No matter what you think of him, it is a horrible, horrible tragedy for his family.
While I don’t agree with Scientology one bit, and I haven’t always cared for either of their work, the loss of a child in any capacity is a nightmare. Throw in paparazzi and it multiplies tenfold.
The next few weeks will be a hotbed of discussion and rumors regarding his son, possible autism and the nutjob ‘religion’. I feel for the Travolta family in this tragedy, but if their son does have autism (a rumor I never heard.) or other non-scientology approved disorders and they didn’t seek valid medical consul, and this young man’s death was a direct result of such neglect, I hope it brings to light the complete scam Scientology is to save other people from such mental abuse. And some criminal charges, jail time and a public berating for all involved.
Yes. A significant percentage of people with autism also have a seizure disorder as well. Not 100% of course, but the rate is higher than the general public. My assumption is that because autism is a problem with brain abnormalities, those abnormalities can trigger seizures as well in some patients.
http://jcn.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/20/1/27
The incidence of seizures among children with autistic symptoms | American Journal of Psychiatry (older study, I’ve never heard the term “partially autistic” before).
Best Health Products and Services – ArticlesBase.com
My nephew who is mid-to-low-functioning has “absence” (“petit-mal”) seizures. My son (high functioning) was screened for seizures when he was first diagnosed and it’s something we keep an eye out for. Seizures are also linked to developmental delays in and of themselves, I believe, even when autism isn’t a factor.
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I hope like hell that Scientology doesn’t consider autism a mental illness… though as SSRIs (e.g. Prozac) can be useful in managing some of the symptoms in some individuals, who knows.
Treating his autism (if he had it) would not have made a difference to his seizure (even though seizures are indeed associated with autism). If it turns out that he had an identified severe seizure disorder that they refused medication for based on their religious beliefs that would be one thing. But barring that this young man’s death seems unlikely to be a direct result of religious beliefs.
Fall through the glass? WTF? Don’t most shower doors use safety glass these days? You might crack the glass if you hit it with a hammer. Certainly any place someone with Travolta’s money would be staying or living wouldn’t have a flimsy glass shower door. I don’t even have one of those in my house.
The article said that he hit his head and died from that. In time we might learn that it was really something else, of course, but one is less likely to suffer a nasty head trauma if they fall in an enclosed space.
Autism isn’t fatal. Treating or not treating it isn’t going to prevent or cause death. Seizures are not a symptom or result of autism, either - two separate disorders that can occur in the same person with different treatments. Regardless, if you don’t know, if you weren’t there, haven’t read or don’t have any real knowledge, then please don’t make uneducated assumptions. A family lost their 16 y.o. child in a tragic accident. Do they really need to be ripped apart further?
Ditto what **Mama Zappa **said. Awful news.
Word. I know Scientology is the root of all evil, but at this time I just have sympathy for the Travoltas. It’s a terrible, terrible loss.
(I’m no fan of Scientology, but I’m often amazed at how quickly folks on this board will try to blame it for all that goes wrong in the lives of people who are adherents…)
No one said they did drugs. If you read my post you would have seen it said
“The Travolta’s sounded like typical Hollywood parents. Lots of nannies and help, spend some time with them, leave and go shoot movies, come back.”
Does it say I said they did drugs. It said my impression of typical Hollywood parents is they have lots of help to raise their kids, unlike most non-Hollywood people.
They were in the Bahamas, not the US, that can make a difference in things like building codes. And just because the Travolta’s are wealthy, doesn’t mean that the place they’re staying in would be built with high quality materials. Yes, it improves the chances, but I’ve been in enough high dollar homes made with shoddy construction to know that “You get what you pay for” is not always true.
I seriously doubt that the Travolta’s have ever heard of the Straight Dope, much less the message board associated wtih it.
In this case, its not a huge stretch. People with various conditions have died while under the “care” of Scientologists, Tom Cruise has famously said that if a Scientologist sees a car wreck they are morally obligated to stop and help out, because only a Scientologist can truly save the people in a wreck. If the kid didn’t have a seizure disorder (and possibly autism), most people would not automatically assume that his parents’ religion might have contributed to his death. Given the Scientologists willingness to blame nearly everything on “evil spirits,” and their labyrinthine church structure, which can control every aspect of a person’s life, its role in his death cannot be ruled out.
Hopefully, the Travolta’s did everything parents with their means could do to keep Jett healthy, but until the autopsy is completed (and lets hope that its done by a non-scientologist) we cannot say for sure.