An 18-year-old is accused of bludgeoning his mother to death–but would she want him to be jailed for the crime? Sky Walker, who is severely autistic and barely speaks, is charged with the killing of Gertrude Steuernagel, a political science professor at Kent State University. She was found badly beaten in her kitchen last month and died on Feb. 6.
Molly Merryman, a colleague and close friend of Steuernagel’s, told CBS’s Early Show that this was “a mother and son who loved each other deeply.”
Walker was ordered to undergo a competency and IQ evaluation within 30 days to be performed by the Summit County Psycho-Diagnostic Clinic. He appeared at the arraignment over a video feed from the Portage County Jail. According to KentStateNewsNet.com, he was seated in a wheelchair, wearing a nylon and mesh spit mask put on inmates who become violent. He was agitated, thrashing his head as two officers held him.
“Neither Sky nor I will ever win the Nobel Peace Prize,” professor Steuernagel once wrote. “Neither of us will write the great American novel. We will, however, make each other laugh… He is my dance partner and I his. Sometimes we step on each other’s toes and sometimes we navigate with great grace. I’ve learned when to lead and when to follow.”
Three families with autistic kids had sought to be compensated by the government’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. But a special court panel ruled on Thursday that there was insufficient evidence of a link between autism and early childhood vaccines, CNN reported.
The plaintiffs included the Cedillo family, whose 14-year-old daughter cannot speak and wears a diaper. Judge George L. Hastings Jr. said in his ruling that he had deep sympathy for the three families, but “must decide this case not on sentiment, but by analyzing the evidence.”
Scientists say that it’s unclear what causes autism, a range of disorders that inhibits a child’s ability to interact and communicate and affects 1 in 150 American kids. A big study last year found no link between autism and vaccines. The British researcher who in 1998 suggested that a link existed has been under investigation for various charges of professional misconduct.
More than 5,300 parents of autistic children have filed cases, seeking damage awards from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Celebrities including Jenny McCarthy, who has an autistic son, have staged anti-vaccine rallies. Many parents have refused to get their children vaccinated against measle, mumps and rubellas, which has triggered outbreaks of the diseases and major public health concerns.
Kids born more than three months early have at least double the risk of showing signs of autism by the time they’re toddlers, according to a new study.
However, researchers do not think that the risk for autism is caused by preterm birth. Instead, whatever causes a child to have autism may also prompt a premature birth, Dr. Karl Kuban of Boston University medical school told Reuters.
In their study, forthcoming in the Pediatrics journal, researchers followed 988 kids who were born very early. When the kids were toddlers, they were screened for autism following a checklist of 23 behavior signs. About 21 percent of the kids tested positive. In comparison, just six percent of kids who are born full-term test positive.
Even when researchers took out pre-term children who already had shown motor, vision and hearing impairments, 16 percent of the group tested positive for autism. Pre-term birth has been linked to other health problems, including vision loss, cerebral palsy and mental retardation.
Parents of autistic kids struggle with a greater financial burden than families of children with other types of special emotional or physical needs. And they are three times more likely to be forced to cut back their work schedule or quit their jobs entirely to care for their child.
Those were the conclusions of a recent government report that examined survey results from the families of nearly 40,000 kids with special care needs that ranged from allergies to cerebral palsy.
Researchers say that families of autistic kids face more expensive care because the children often need various types of treatment such as speech and behavior therapy, as well as medication. The high costs mean that some treatment has to be pared down or skipped.
Many insurance companies refuse to cover treatment, arguing that some aspects of autism are a developmental disorder, rather than a disease. Seven states now mandate that insurance companies cover autism treatment until a child is 21, and advocates are pushing for similar legislation in other states.
The government report found that parents of autistic children were more likely than others to spend 10 or more hours per week giving or arranging care for their child. Such care can cost more than $1,000 in out-of-pocket expenses. The full report, published in the December issue of Pediatrics journal, can be read here.
Illinois will join six other states that have passed laws in the past two years requiring insurance companies to include autism coverage. The others are Texas, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana.
Under the Illinois bill, which the governor is expected to sign soon, insurers would be required to cover treatment up to $36,000 a year, until a patient turns 21. An estimated 4,500 families are expected to qualify for the coverage. The legislation was sent last week to the governor, who has said he would sign it.
The advocacy group Autism Speaks has been lobbying other state governments for similar bills. President-elect Barack Obama has expressed support for mandated insurance coverage of autism.
Autism, which includes a range of disorders that hinders the ability to communicate and interact, affects about one in 150 American kids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s unclear what causes autism, and there is no cure, but health experts say that early intervention and therapy can help kids deal with the disorder.
Several Illinois lawmakers told the Chicago Tribune that lack of the insurance coverage was hurting families. “People have filed for bankruptcy in order to finance the medical services for children with autism,” said the bill’s Senate sponsor, James DeLeo (D-Chicago).
But many insurers say that schools should foot the bill for autism therapy because it is an educational service, not medical. “These services are being transferred to the healthcare system at a time when those we serve are telling us they cannot afford to pay more,” Susan Pisano, communication vice president for America’s Health Insurance Plans told WBZ-TV News in Boston.
Children who are later diagnosed with autism stare noticeably at objects such as bottles and rattles. They also rotate and spin their toys more repetitively than other babies.
These signs may appear as early as 12 months of age, according to a study published recently by researchers at the University of California-Davis M.I.N.D. Institute (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders).
“There is an urgent need to develop measures that can pick up early signs of autism, signs present before 24 months,” said Sally Ozonoff, lead researcher, in a news release. She said that parents can add this type of behavior to their check-list or have it assessed during a visit to a pediatrician’s office.
The average age of autism diagnosis is age three. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all infants be screened for autism by their second birthdays. Current tests focus on behavior such as how a child responds to his name, makes eye contact and learns words. The earlier autism is detected, the sooner a child can be treated. It’s unclear what causes autism, a behavioral and communicative disorder.
Ozonoff’s study, published in the journal Autism, involved 66 infants. Nine of the kids were later diagnosed with autism and seven of those children displayed more spinning, rotating and unusual visual exploration of objects than their peers. The kids chosen for the study group were considered at higher risk for autism, partly because they had siblings with the disorder.
Autism United has changed its mind about boycotting Denis Leary’s book, “Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid.” But now the advocacy group wants the comedian to delete the offensive chapter about autism in the book. If not, it at least wants part of the book’s profits to be donated to autism charities.
“As a parent of a child with autism, I feel he owes the autism community the money he is making for using what has quickly become an epidemic in our country as a cheap ploy to sell his book,” said Mark Anthony Ramirez, a spokesman for Autism United, in a statement on the group’s website.
Leary has not issued a response. He had apologized twice to the group and said that the parts of the book quoted in the media were taken out of context. Autism United has posted the entire “Autism Schmautism” chapter on its website, saying that readers can judge for themselves. In the chapter, Leary writes that there is a boom in autism because “inattentive mothers and competitive dads want an explanation for why their dumb-ass kids can’t compete academically.”
Celebrities Holly Robinson Peete and Jenny McCarthy have verbally slapped Leary for his comments. McCarthy, who doesn’t accept Leary’s apology, said that he is “obviously stupid.” She might be pleased to know that boycott or not, Leary’s book isn’t exactly a best-seller. His Amazon sales ranking as of Sunday night was 2,591.
Denis Leary pulled the first punch. The actor wrote in his new book that the autism diagnosis helps “explain away the deficiencies of junior morons.” Ouch!
Actress Holly Robinson Peete, who has an autistic son, quickly fired back and hit him where it hurt. The comedian, she said, just isn’t funny: “Autism is a very bad punchline.”
Denis quickly tried to surrender and issued a statement to Us Weekly magazine saying that his comments were taken out of context from his book, “Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid.”
Oh yeah, whatever. Actress Jenny McCarthy wasn’t going to let him get off that easily. Denis is “obviously stupid,” the Playboy Playmate turned autism activist told Access Hollywood. “This community has been through so much and to compare and use the world ‘dumb-ass lazy’ with autism, it’s just not fair.”
Crawl away while you still can, Denis.
Jenny McCarthy won’t accept Amanda Peet’s apology for referring to moms who don’t want their kids vaccinated as “parasites.”
“She has a lot of balls,” McCarthy recently told Spectrum, an autism magazine. “There is an angry mob on my side.” Meow!
To pile on, national advocacy group Autism United has called for a boycott of Amanda’s movies, Fox News reported. So far, no response from the star of “Igby Goes Down.”
Jenny and her supporters believe that vaccines can cause autism and wants the federal government to remove what they say are toxins in vaccines. The former Playboy Playmate and star of “Scary Movie 3,” who has a six-year-old son with autism, led a rally on the issue in Washington this summer.
Team Amanda charges that moms like Jenny are the reason for the recent measles outbreak. The actress is a spokesmom for Every Child by Two, which encourages parents to get their child fully vaccinated by age 2. She got involved after the American Academy of Pediatrics realized it couldn’t handle Jenny by itself and needed a celebrity on its side. Should we just settle this on “Dancing with the Stars”?
A coalition of 22 major medical groups wants parents to stop listening to Jenny McCarthy. The former Playboy Playmate and her husband, comedian Jim Carrey, have been leading rallies against vaccines, linking the injections to their son’s autism.
On Thursday, doctors fought back. They urged the government to create an information campaign and called for more vaccine research. “We do not want to become a nation of people who are vulnerable to diseases that are deadly or that can have serious complications, especially if those diseases can be prevented,” Dr. Renee Jenkins, American Academy of Pediatrics’ president, said in a statement.
The alliance of medical groups, which includes the American Medical Association blames the anti-vaccine hysteria for the recent measles outbreak. More than 130 kids have gotten the measles so far this year – the highest infection rate in more than a decade, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease and Prevention. In about half of the cases, the kids were not vaccinated.
Recently, the pro-vaccine faction scored when a major study debunked the notion that measles shots cause autism. As Minor Troubles readers also know, 77 percent of American kids were fully vaccinated last year, a record number. Still, the alliance of doctors says the other tots could wreak havoc on public health.
Jenny, rebuttal?
