“You have to adjust. It’s as if part of your son has
been taken away,” says Abel Community resident Tammy Jones as she
talks passionately about her young son Travis who was diagnosed with
autism following a series of immunizations at 19 months of age.
Prior to that fateful event the Jones were living what they thought
was the typical American dream. Tammy’s husband Billy is employed as
an engineer with Honda in Lincoln, she is a youth director at
Liberty Hill Congregational Methodist Church and their plans were to
build a new home in Cleburne County.
The Jones’ older son Dylan was in perfect health so they expected no
problems with Travis and when the time came for his series of
childhood immunizations they thought nothing of it when he was given
eight vaccinations on the same trip to the pediatrician.
“After the immunizations he got a high fever but it went away,” said
Jones as she reviewed the trips to the pediatrician who told them
everything should be fine and not to worry.
“But we noticed changes. He was withdrawing and didn’t respond to
his name. He stopped talking. He started doing strange things like
he lived in his own little world,” Jones added
And before his second birthday Travis had indeed entered his own
little world - the world of autism which is a complex developmental
disability occurring in as many as one in 150 individuals, over
8,000 of whom are Alabamians.
The disorder makes it difficult for those with autism to communicate
with others and relate to the outside world. The disability is the
third most prevalent developmental disability and the most
misunderstood.
Autism awareness is raised each April by groups and organizations
striving to find help for those with the disability, as there is no
known cure.
With the help of pediatrician neurologists in Birmingham the Jones’
learned of their son’s fate.
Since there is no medical test for the disability there are other
avenues to diagnose the disease including checking brain activity
and other factors.
“His brain activity was normal and he had no seizures but in
October, 2001 he was properly tested, through EEGs and blood tests,
at the Glenwood Facility in Birmingham and we were told Travis had
autism. It knocked the wind out of me. Here we were a perfect family
- how could this happen? I didn’t really want to seek help because I
was in a state of denial but at our parent’s urging we acted.
It’s as if a part of your son has been taken away. I started blaming
God even though I’m a youth director at Liberty Hill Congregational
Methodist Church,” explained Jones.
She credits their pastor Don Henley for saving her. “We got together
and he just prayed and I cried and cried and cried but when it was
over I felt I had the strength to deal with the situation. I
realized there is no cure and I had to deal with that,” she adds.
Jones said families in similar situations must be able to grieve and
move on and deal with the problem.
“I had no idea what autism was or how to get help,” said Jones who
now does what she can to help other families in the area who have
loved ones with autism.
Jones said she got on a crash course of reading books and magazines,
searching the Internet and joining the Calhoun-Cleburne support
group. She also connected with Auburn University where she went
through a workshop on how to deal with autistic children.
“That was perhaps the best thing I went through because they explain
autism from the mild cases to the severe and mentally retarded. They
taught me how to teach my son and how to communicate with him,”
Jones explained.
She said many autistic children are visual learners who show little
emotions or are incapable of abstract ideas and thoughts.
Jones had to set up a special classroom with special equipment at
home where Travis could be taught on a one-on-one basis. He has a
speech pathologist in Anniston.
“We went from nothing to getting some speech response. He can now
spell and write his own name. What people need to realize is this is
an epidemic. There are nine autistic children born each day in
California. In 1990 there was one in 10,000 and last year that
figure was 1 in 150,” she explains.
While researchers are still unclear about all of the causes of
autism, reactions to childhood immunizations seem to be a major
factor and perhaps cause.
Jones said her first son had the same shots and had no problems but
there are some researchers who believe some kids may not have
sufficient immune systems to handle the amount of vaccinations.
Jones also tells parents that they can stretch out childhood
vaccinations over a period of time rather than have a complete set
of injections at once. “This is something doctors usually will not
tell you but, yes, it can be done. Know the facts about
immunizations.” she warns. “Knowledge is power.”
She said there are several families in Cleburne County who have
autistic children and she would like to see them better served,
particularly in school settings. She said these children must have a
one-on-one relationship with teachers and a very structured routine
and placing them in multi-handicapped situations is not recommended.
“Many school systems say they don’t have the funds but federal
special education funds are never prorated or cut. It just depends
on what school systems actually do with the money,” she said.
Jones credits Cleburne County Elementary School Speech Teacher Cindy
Calhoun for her work with Travis.
In addition, on the homefront the Jones’ have had to structure their
lives in a more routine way and change their dietary habits.
Medical researchers found autistic children were staying “high”
due to their system’s reactions to certain foods. The Jones’ eat a
gluten free diet because Travis’ system cannot process wheat flour
products and he reacts to food items containing such as if he had
been loaded with cocaine - his pain sensors will shut down and he
becomes “unable to focus.”
Researchers in England, Norway and at the University of Florida
found peptides with opiate activity in the urine of a high
percentage of autistic children. Opiates are drugs, like morphine,
which affect brain function and the main culprits were gluten and
casein which is milk protein - highly addictive, like opium, for an
autistic person.
Many medical professionals and scientists also blame
thimerosal-containing vaccines for the increased rise in autism and
learning disabilities. Thimerosal, a preservative added to many
vaccines, is considered more toxic than mercury and giving a
10-pound infant a single vaccine containing thimerosal is equivalent
to giving a 100 pound adult 40 vaccines in one day. It is a major
source of mercury in children.
Harris Coulter, author of Vaccination and Social Violence estimates
one in five children is affected to some degree by a childhood
vaccination.
He writes, “Vaccination programs were instituted in the late 1930s,
and the first handful of autistic babies were noted in the early
1940s. When vaccination programs were expanded after the war, the
number of autistic children increased greatly. As the children of
the first vaccinated generation (born in 1945) reached the age of
eight or nine (in the 1950s) it was found that they could not read.
This problem has continued to worsen until today about 20 percent of
American school children are thought to have learning disabilities.”
The Federal Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency
called for the removal of mercury in infant vaccines beginning in
1999. In 1986 Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury
Act which grants compensation to individuals injured by certain
vaccines as long as claims are filed within the appropriate time.
The act has already made compensation of $80 million and over 4,000
claims await resolution.
In the end, Jones said, she hopes Travis will be able to make a
difference in the world, despite his disability, and she believes he
will.
For those wanting more information about autism Jones said she could
be reached at 253-2285 or at Tmyjones30@AOL.com.
Travis (r) lakeside with older brother Dylan at their
home
About Wayne Ruple
Cleburne News editor Wayne Ruple
is a native of Ashville. Before coming to Heflin, he worked for
three years as a computer systems manager in Birmingham. Ruple has
worked for The Sand Mountain Reporter in Albertville, and was the
editor of The Independent in Robertsdale. He has also worked for the
Shades Valley Sun, the St. Clair News-Aegis and The Daily Home in
Talladega.
ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND
MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION
PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS
OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR
LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND
COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH
YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"
