John Travolta/Kelly Preston

[sumone]

Their 16 year old son, Jett, died today. My heart just breaks for them.

 

[Mannit]

Yeah I just read that too

It's very sad.

 

[MyPetZombie]

me too. that's the saddest thing I can imagine happening to anyone.

 

[Ambrosia Lemon]

I read that this morning, so heartbreaking, I couldn't imagine, and don't want too.

 

[Shai Gar]

Looks like another case of Scientologists kill a child.

 

[sumone]

Or that's how the media want to spin it anyway.

 

[Shai Gar]

edit: Edited to remove all scientology references.

 

[ZenCat]

My heart goes out to them.

A couple of things, Shai, because I find your statement recklessly judgmental. It doesn't seem to be known definitely yet whether or not the boy was taking medication, and if not, whether the reason was his parents beliefs or the fact that his seizures did not respond to medication (many don't.)

Jett Travolta’s death reportedly followed a seizure episode. Seizures are episodes of uncontrolled movements and loss of consciousness. Seizures have variable symptoms and vary between patients and episodes. Some parties have period of blank staring while other have massive convulsions.


While seizures can often be successfully controlled with medication, not all patients respond to treatment. A seizure is a condition that can be dangerous as the patient can lose control unexpectedly, such as when they are driving a car or operating heavy equipment. People can also choke, smother or injure themselves while having a seizure.


Seizures have several causes, including genetics, accident, disease, stroke or medical trauma. In about half of the affected people the cause of seizures is never determined.

If someone needs to point fingers and issue blame, I'd be more inclined to wonder why he was unsupervised in a bathroom, if he routinely had life-threatening seizures, regardless of whether or not he was on medication.


As far as Scientology goes, it appears that it is primarily psychiatric drugs they seem to be against. Scientology is not alone in it's position on medication either. Christian Scientists, for example. There may be others I'm not familiar with.

I certainly find the suggestion that these parents killed their son saddening

What does Scientology say about medical drugs?


In public statements, especially to newcomers, Scientology claims that medical drugs are fine and says there's no problem with Scientologists taking drugs prescribed by a physician.


However, in materials presented by Scientology front group Narconon, they claim that all drugs are poisonous and remain in the body permanently - claims that are thoroughly discredited by modern science.


Psychiatric drugs are seen differently: Scientology forbids the use of all psychiatric drugs, and works to prevent non-Scientologists from using them as well. Scientologists are vehemently opposed to all forms of psychiatry - not just for themselves, but for everyone.


Although Scientology publicly states that they don't interfere with individual Scientologists taking prescribed medication, several former members have reported being told to stop taking prescription drugs and suffering negative consequences if they went ahead and kept taking them. Since these drugs were prescribed for serious medical conditions, including epilepsy and Grave's disease, these individuals were at serious risk if they stopped taking the medication.


Finally, Scientology claims that taking aspirin interferes with forming mental images, so participants are forbidden from getting auditing for 24 hours after taking aspirin.

 

[Lurker]

16 is just too young. It's never ok or justifiable at that age.

 

[AntoniaDodge]

My heart goes out to them.

A couple of things, Shai, because I find your statement recklessly judgmental. It doesn't seem to be known definitely yet whether or not the boy was taking medication, and if not, whether the reason was his parents beliefs or the fact that his seizures did not respond to medication (many don't.)

If someone needs to point fingers and issue blame, I'd be more inclined to wonder why he was unsupervised in a bathroom, if he routinely had life-threatening seizures, regardless of whether or not he was on medication.

This is very true. My sister died of a grand mal seizure and she was on powerful medication.

Zen - seizures, even violent ones, are so rarely life threatening that generally the risk isn't worth the lack of privacy 24/7. My sister began having violent grand mal seizures at the age of 18, and sometimes she had them in the shower, etc... but she would never have wanted to live a life where she had no ability to have a truly private moment.

She did not die from a fall, but rather due to the portion of her brain that was affected during her final seizure - it shut down her involuntary muscles and her heart and lungs simply stopped. She'd had falls before, sometimes bad ones. But what took her out was entirely unpreventable.

My heart very much goes out to this family, as well.