Non-Verbal Autistic boy survives sub-zero temperatures

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Victorian teenager William Callaghan, missing in dense bushland at Mount Disappointment since Monday, has been found conscious and breathing.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/will- ... 2e8ee0a6e3

The 14-year-old , who has autism and is non-verbal, went missing about 2.20pm on Monday.
Unable to talk, he taps his chest to communicate and his favourite music is from the 'Thomas the Tank Engine' television program.
Search teams have been blasting Thomas the Tank Engine over loud speakers in the hope it draws out the missing teen on the freezing mountain.
Detectives said the search was a "race against time" to track down the teen, as overnight temperatures on Mount Disappointment dropped to below zero for a second night.

To young William "little brother I salute you"

I was expecting the worst and was turning off the news reports.
Nice to see good news, for a change.

Being left alone in cold weather with some train-related activity going on sounds absolutely ideal, to be fair.

It's remarkable, William is one of many autistic boys to survive being lost in sub-freezing temperatures.

Here's William



Another couple of autistic kids who survived being lost in the wilderness

Eight-year-old Robert Wood Jr., was found Friday, five days after he vanished during a family hike in a Virginia park. He survived 5 days lost


11 year old Luke Shambrook is a champion! he survived 4 days and nights in the rain and cold



These boys are all champions. They have done what a grown adult would struggle to survive through.

Great for them. I hope they live long and prosper.

I was watching this on the local news, and beginning to fear the worst after the duration started to drag out.

I'm super relieved he's okay!
The coverage was a little sensationalist and zookeeper-ish, but overall about as good as we get from mainstream media.

One major news outlet quoted aussie ND advocacy organization Amaze, who said the special measures adopted in the search effort were to be commended for exemplifying a person-centered response.

Amaze also worked in a plug for understanding and accepting autistics as we are - good on them.

Many of those of our fellows on the spectrum are tough and resilient! Perhaps more so than the average NT. I'm very glad he, as well as the others mentioned, are doing OK.

I hadn't heard of this since I'm not Aussie and seldom see news from there, but it's great that this story had a happy ending.

Thank you so much for sharing that good news. The resiliency of these youngsters is astounding.

I am thinking out loud here: perhaps our autistic children are better able to cope being alone, because most of us prefer to be alone. Also, youngsters with autism may be routinely puzzled about what goes on around them and handle this other alternative better than NT children.

As someone who spends a lot of time in the wilderness, alone or with small groups, I always feel more secure when I am alone. I don't trust others to act responsibly in the event of an emergency.

if you dont know, that you are lost ? are you still lost? if you dont feel hungry are you still hungry?
If the environment is interesting? is it better than your normal environment .?
Am very glad he survived and is in good shape .
Griffith Park California , has a large and fantastic outdoor and partly indoor train museum . called Travel Town . In its early days you could climb all over these huge steam engines spanning many decades of development of Steam Engines Trains . Nowadays you cannot climb on these.
Was taken there as a part of a birthday celebration given by someone other than my parents.
all a buncha little kids approx 5 yrs old. Got fascinated by what i was looking at .. the group moved on and packed up and left , leaving me behind . Wasnt till 2 hours later , i noticed i was alone .
After searching this rather substantial park for them ,i went to the the snack bar and asked where they were , The staff had no idea what i was going on about . after awhile, they considered me to be lost ,
It was a miracle , i had been taught my families phone number . And after a fashion was able to recite it though teary eyes( but only after the staff reacted so strongly to me being left alone .). at the time was figuring had been left alone intentionally .And my mother genuinely seemed angry with me. So if you dont know your lost ,, are you still lost .

Locals are canvassing the council to change the name of the mountain (which is currently Mt Disappointment) where young William was lost.

Two possible choices are Mt Callaghan (named after William) or Mt Gibbs (names after Ben Gibbs who was a local bushman who found William)

William's face is being prominently splashed all over the world's media

This is one of the reasons I don't take psychologists seriously:

Child psychologist Robyn Young yesterday told news.com.au Will’s autism likely helped him survive in the bush because people who have the condition often don’t feel pain like the rest of us.

I mean...really?

This really revs me up!

When I worked in the Emergency Department, a doctor told me a Down syndrome patient didn't need pain medication because “those people” can’t feel pain!