According to Official Report, Jett Travolta Was Autistic

I’m not quite sure if anything from the ENQUIRER makes great big news. They get sued all the time. Does it really matter if the Travolta’s admitted or not if their child had autism? Does it really matter if they admitted anything and what religion they are? Does any one really know if Jett had an actual diagnosis of autism? How would you know it was autism and not brain damage from a previous seizure and a misdiagnosis? And finally, who cares. Parents allow controversial therapies on their children all the time and there is hardly one standard intervention for autism anyway, little of it actual ‘medical’ intervention.
Jett did not die due to autism. Many parents regardless of religion are in denial of their child having autism.

These are not condolences from the autism community; it is assumptions and and guessing and the autism community still picking them apart.

*sigh* oh Sandy, where do I begin…

“I’m not quite sure if anything from the ENQUIRER makes great big news.”

The source is a police report. Are you questioning the authenticity of that?

“Does it really matter if the Travolta’s admitted or not if their child had autism?”

Yes. They publicly denied it and actually withheld treatment from him, allowing him to suffer and subsequently die.

“And finally, who cares. Parents allow controversial therapies on their children all the time…”

…and social services or the courts step in to remove the child from the dangerous household. Scientologists or celebrities should not be immune to this.

“Jett did not die due to autism.”

He died by hitting his head during a seizure that he suffered from in tandem with his autism (30% of autistics have seizures).

“Many parents regardless of religion are in denial of their child having autism.”

Which leads to their children suffering.

You’re pretty callous about children who suffer due to their parent’s superstition.

The most recent happening is the news announcement in the publication of The National Enquirer in which they are boasting of having the actual “death reports” that were filled out at the scene by John Travolta during the police documentation of his son’s passing. I am sickened by the fact that the National Enquirer feels justified in taking something so personal and so tragic regarding the minor child of John and Kelly and selling it in their tabloid. Please, I beg of all good people…DO NOT BUY their rag mag. EVERYONE should ban The National Enquirer and certainly that particular issue. It is nothing but damaging and hurtful gossip-for-profit. Anyone that purchases that magazine is supporting the exploitation of a grieving family. Please remember, YOU have the power to make their attempts fail. Do not purchase.

For whatever reason, The National Enquirer believes it is the public’s right to know that Jett Travolta was autistic? Why?
John and Kelly had a very good reason to not disclose their child’s autism. If you were in the limelight as they are…would YOU want to disclose to the media of a vulnerable child? These people have paparazzi in their faces all the time, they get letters from obsessed fans, they have stalkers, etc. I support the fact 100% that they chose to keep their children and their childrens needs out of the “need to know” public arena. Do not purchase or support the National Enquirer, please. Do it in remembrance of Jett, his mom, his dad and his sister. Do it for them.

The more that I think about this…the more hurtful I find your column. This is NOT the way to present information to the public on Autism. My own son is autistic with multiple seizure disorders and I take offense that this column would point the direction to a rag-mag that has no business exploiting the private lives of the Travolta family and their deceased minor child. It is shameful. Your comment that the perhaps now the Travolta family will welcome condolences of the autism community is a further insult to their family and quite honestly, to mine as well. Shame on this entire “article”. You should have sold this to the National Enquirer because personally I rate this the same as their magazine… selfish and exploitive. Do not include me in your “community of autistic parents”…I have much more unselfish care and love for a grieving family than to expect that they should be thanking me for condolences.

A.Nonymous… don’t listen to gossip. In one sentence you sympathize with the family and the next you speak of something you do not know about. Your statement of “Yes. They publicly denied it and actually withheld treatment from him, allowing him to suffer and subsequently die.” is slanderous and unfounded. No wonder you signed your name Anonymous. Shameful.

“A.Nonymous… don’t listen to gossip.”

Police reports from the child’s father constitutes gossip now? What else have you redefined to be as gossip?

““Yes. They publicly denied it and actually withheld treatment from him, allowing him to suffer and subsequently die.” is slanderous and unfounded.”

So when John Travolta and Kelly Preston said “we took him off Depakote” which minimized his seizures that is slanderous and unfounded? Man oh man, hand me whatever you’re smoking! They took him off claiming it was damaging his liver, but Scientology “detoxifcation” — which requires a person consume near-toxic levels of niacin — has more of an impact on a growing boy’s liver than any anti-seizure meds do.

In your post you’ve redefined “gossip” to cover a sworn oath to law enforcement and discussing another person’s officially-released statement as “slanderous and unfounded” towards that person.

What other feats of intellectual dishonesty will you perform for us next?

A. Nonymous- I’m surprised you know so much about the death of this child when so few people do. The Travolta’s may not had been treating their child for autism, but they had treated their child for seizures with medication and even then on medication, a child can still have seizures and ones that are fatal. Had they gone the ‘natural’ way (might be a form of Scientology to some) which so many choose to do than mainstream doctors, tell my what these parents did that was so wrong? Think about how one may judge another lest they also be judged for their own choices. How would you like the ENQUIRER at your door, printing articles about your choices? And don’t think the ENQUIRER isn’t expecting a profit off their print.

It should matter if the child had autism or not to offer condolences from the autism community. The only thing that is controversial is that no one can accept a young man died, period with out adding conjecture. This story is not a ‘bombshell, it is ‘band wagon’.

Lavanda – This is a major news story, and it’s top of the fold for many news outlets. Since I blog about autism, and this is a story of interest to people dealing with autism, I’ve written about it. I am not selling the Enquirer, nor am I selling any of the other websites and outlets to which I link in other blog posts. The links are for the convenience of readers who may want to see the original articles.

I have no opinion one way or the other about the Travoltas – I don’t know them. I will certainly say that hitting your head in the shower as the result of an epileptic seizure is obviously an accident. No autism-related treatment could have prevented it, and evidently the anti-seizure medications Jett was taking were not helping. In short I don’t think Jett’s death was anyone’s fault, and it was surely tragic.

Lisa

Nobody knows if Jett was getting Scientology “detoxifcation” with Niacin, which is a vitamin B. Depakote can clearly cause liver disfunction along with many other side effects. And again, many parents go the ‘natural’ route away from mainstream doctos and medicine, so be careful who you judge.

Police reports are often wrong, containing wrong info, but certain magazines are known for adding things to it as well. Consider the source.

I fear that for the Travolta’s, their nightmare will never end and this article does not help them to heal at all.

Sure, the deniers in Scientology tick me off but this Enquirer story is simply bad taste, clearly timed to leverage off the promotion for Travolta’s new film. The story isn’t going to result in anything positive just cause more pain.

I’d rather have seen your column today focus on a somewhat related issue, the launch of the Autism Safety Project.
http://www.autismspeaks.org/press/autism_safety_project.php
The stand alone website was the result of a multi year collaborative effort (led by AS but involving a very WIDE range of other advocacy organizations and individuals). The goal is to link safety, emergengy medicine, and other professionals, families, advocates, and people with autism to resources that will promote a safer world for everyone. FedEx generously funded this project. Take a look, make suggestions. They are welcome.
http://www.autismsafetyproject.org/site/c.kuIVKgMZIxF/b.5058283/k.BE40/Home.htm

I disagree that this is a major news story. On the popular news feeds I use, I had to go back 8 pages to find it. The only buzz going on about this is in the blogsphere. I’m not sure why this would have any interest to the autism community. No one in any way could have forced this family to do anyhting. My neighbors 2 year old son who very much appears to have autism, and their parents suspect this too. Would I have a right to walk over there and demand they do this or that? Can I predict what would be the best intervention for that child? Or that they admit to every one in the world their child MAY have autism??

This is not autism news, unless we’ve come to a point in time where we can judge and dictate to other parents what they must do, right down to not denying their child had autism.
The whole world doesn’t need to know the medical history of Jett. There is no purpose for prevention here, awareness or anything productive at all. This is only to judge these people and Scientology, none of it relating to autism. I don”t agree with many autism related therapies. Big deal. Not everyone agree’s with Scientology, big deal.

Sandy – I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying here.

Are you saying “even though John Travolta is a celebrity, you shouldn’t write about him because celebrities’ personal lives aren’t to intruded upon or judged?”

I’m not judging him – I have no idea what Jett’s life was like, or what the Travoltas are like as parents.

But yes – celebrity lives are news. I mean, sheesh, celebrity magazines, blogs, newsfeeds and columns are #1 in every possible way.

The topic really seems to me to be as you said “Scientology infamously preaches the belief that psychological and developmental disorders are “fake,” and require no treatment. By admitting that his son was autistic, Travolta is in direct conflict with the beliefs of Scientology.”
Is it about autism or Scientology?
Then you say “So far as I am aware, John Travolta has made no official comment about this issue.”
The autism community is the one injecting into their lives (an example this blog topic), the Travolta’s are not injecting into the autism community. So because of this, I agree it is celebrity gossip/ tabloid only and really has nothing to do with autism at all.

Let’s just say there is some small relation connected to autism, what can we learn from the death of this child? He didn’t die due to autism, and the parents are not openingly talking, so all we are doing is a bunch of assuming. Because they are a celebrity, society thinks they have to know everything about them. What people are trying to really say is the child died due to their beliefs.

It is interesting that persons give themselves the right to treat another under their care with unproven alternative medicine. It is not as though this child had a minor ailment, which many alternative therapies are appropriate, but an incredibly serious disease that requires tested medicine. Unless you are a scientist with clinical trials, you have no right to say this therapy works or that therapy works because in reality, you have NO solid data. If the Travoltas took their child off of real clinically studied medication to try an untested and unproven method, they indirectly damaged a child, intentionally. I am not suggesting that the Travoltas killed their child but practiced some major criminal negligence for the egotistical fulfillment of their religious beliefs.

“Nobody knows if Jett was getting Scientology “detoxifcation” with Niacin,”

Kelly Preston said so on national television. It may have been Oprah.

At the time of death, no one knows.

Niacin isn’t just used with Scientology, it’s also used to lower cholesterol and triglycerides and anyone can buy it. It’s use wouldn’t had been as a replacement for the seizure meds, so does it really matter??

A seizure killed that young boy.

It is a normal practice to take anyone off an anti-seizure medication when it clearly shows in their liver function studies that it is affecting their liver. Obviously that should be an indication to those who think the Travolta’s neglected traditional medical science as nothing but unfounded gossip. Obviously they had Jett with traditional therapies else he wouldn’t have been taking Depakote to begin with. So when will people quit harassing this family?

Lisa,

Your opening statement of a “revelation” is exactly what I am talking about in being exploitaitve and then linking to the National Enquirer magazine. Since when does anyone who writes about a serious concern as Autism point the way to info from the NE? Again, it is my personal opinion that it is nobody’s business if the Travolta’s chose to hide the fact their son had autism. How can anyone blame them? Why would any celebrity parent want to release the medical information of their minor child to the public? What does that have to do with promoting their talents or skills in acting? As I stated above…to broadcast to the general public of the vulnerability of ones child, in this day and age, would have not been in the best interest of the child. There are just too many sicko and obsessed fans out there. The Travolta’s did right, in my view.

The Travolta family remains in my prayers for one simple reason: they lost their beautiful son. I cannot imagine the pain John and Kelly must be in as parents. And think about Jett’s sister, Ella. This has to be so painful and confusing for her.

We should leave them in peace to deal with Jett’s death in whatever way they can.

Whilst we listen to all this talk about autism and the “Spectrum” we should remember that these “conditions” are not based on science as we understnd it to mean incontovertible evidence. They are created labels. There is no doubt that there are people who have difficulty interacting and need help. But we should be wary of accepting diagnosis based on opinion as opposed to hard factual, scisntific evidence. The plethora of disorders and conditions which in yesteryear were either quirks of character or something one grew out of are today labelled and diagnosed. This has meant a huge increase in the number of people being treated for conditions which is good for the pahramcutical and mental industries but not always best for the individual. We should also question why do we blindly accept these lables and conditions from “experts” who do njot understand the mind?

A better question would be why do we speculate a dead child’s possible autism when the parents themselve are not talking openingly about it? Wasn’t it bad enough al this went on while the child was alive? Why would we be so forcefull to be sure this child has that label to begin with? Autism like symptom’s can be something else and not autism at all yet we have to be soooo focused on this one family.
If this family came out of the closest, I’d be expecting them to advocate about seizures, not autism.

A. Nonymous,

Do not pretend to know ANYTHING about medication, seizures, etc. Depakote can and, in fact, does in many circumstances, damage the liver. This is WHY liver enzymes must be taken frequently on the medication.
Depakote taken by a pregnant woman can increase the chance of autism in her offsrping.

Depakote is NOT to be taken by individuals with mitochondrial dysfunction in most circumstances as it decreases carnitine in patients who already often have problems with this.

If Jett had Kawasaki’s or mitochondrial dysfuntion, he certainly would over time, likely suffer metabolic damage.

Finally, nearly ALL the seizure meds now carry a black box warning because of increased suicide in adolescents. If a child suffers from autism too, one can only imagine the increase in self-injury and agression (in addition to severe weight gain) that can occur.

I am sure the Travolta’s do not have the time nor the inclination to explain all this to you, A. Nonymous. Why? Because it is NONE of your concern. So, go take care of your own child…you might want to learn a little more about what you are talking about too before you open your mouth.

a rag-mag that has no business exploiting the private lives of the Travolta family and their deceased minor child.

Publicity is like oxygen to celebs, and they depend on the tabloid press as much as the press depends on celebrities. The relationship cuts both ways.

Celebs do rely on press, however this one has probably been the most sued ‘tabloid’ newspaper by celebs.

Thank You Lisa Jo for this info and a special Thanks to “A. Nonymous ” for making the most sense!

I am still mad at John T. for not being honest with His Son’s Condition. It could have helped Many of Us! That’s why I am here reading today!

I feel He did unforgivable damage by withholding His Son’s Meds and for following a religous teaching instead of Doctor’s knowledge!

Maybe this will teach those of Us with Newly Diagnosed Family Members!