Autistic teenager killed by medical staff :(

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I'm sure we've all encountered arrogant medical staff in our time...

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... ls-inquest

What the hell did they give him olanzapine for, in the first place? He had a seizure, not psychotic episode.
Why are autistics given antipsychotics?

Well that is extremely sad.

I just can't get it out of my head though that he could have refused that medication...you do have the right to refuse medication if the hospital wanted to persist they would have had to get a court order which may not have been granted. They would have had to have made a very good case as to how anti-psychotics help epilepsy and cerebal palsy which would be hard since that's not a designated use.

I wonder if somehow he was not aware that is what the doctors were trying to give him.

Just disgusting they'd go against the wishes of the patient and his parents who quite clearly said NO anti-psychotics. But now a kid is dead because they ignored the patient and his family...I wonder what the person/people responsible have to say for themselves. I don't think sorry really fixes it in this case does it.

I'm just guessing but I think they might have given him the antipsychotic because he was having some kind of loud meltdown or seizure, so instead of actually looking into what was causing it they just gave him that drug to make him quiet.

I'm not sure he could have refused Sweetleaf. I was once forced to have an injection when I had a mental health crisis and was shouting in a hospital. If someone is mentally ill or appears unable to give consent I think the staff can force the treatment on them here.

Well that’s just awful.

I wonder how this case will turn out. I wonder what the laws of the land are there in terms of doctors administering drugs that patients & guardians have forbidden. I wonder what the laws are concerning the doctor who verbally, and in text, told colleagues not to use antipsychotics, yet they did so anyways. I wonder if there’s a case here for medical malpractice, or some other charge, or if the doctors that ordered the drugs be used were within all legal and medical ethics rights to do so if they truly believed they were necessary & justified.

I can understand that sometimes life saving meds are necessary to administer against someone’s wishes, like when courts order parents to accept medical treatment for their children because thoughts and prayers aren’t working.. but in this case it seems they made a terrible judgment call, especially because they were expressly told by multiple sources - including another doctor - not to use those meds & why. This is the sort of case that, if it is deemed in the courts to have been malpractice, should be, at least, a career ender. Doctors swear an oath to do no harm and they were informed that these meds would cause him harm and gave them anyways. Hopefully many doctors around the world learn from these mistakes and it doesn’t happen again.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Sadly, I think you’ll be disappointed.

They are commonly administered because they make people quiet and docile and “no trouble” (and sometimes borderline vegetative). And sometimes (often, in the medical field), when someone with an autism diagnosis says something, it’s dismissed as defiance and combativeness regardless of the reasons why. NMS symptoms get blown off because “it’s rare,” and some of the first signs are common side effects of atypical antipsychotics (that, once again, nobody seems to listen to the people taking them enough to appreciate).

They just. Don’t. Care. Once you have a diagnosis that people commonly throw antipsychotics at, you don’t matter very much any more.

Barriers to good health care for AS people is one of my hobby horses. Most of us (all?) have encountered not only arrogance but ignorance and prejudice.

There needs to be targeted programmes to educate doctors on a lot of AS issues - such as the not unusual phenomenon of drugs affecting AS recipients in ways not intended. Many of us has sensitive systems and biochemistry that reacts differently to neurotypicals, but doctors continue to act as if the zebras are horses too, that all should be treated as if they were neurotypicals.

It's tunnel vision combined with ignorance, and it is dangerous to AS people.

this stuff makes me so angry. i wonder just how much cultural reliance on medication are damaging young people/ people in general. It seems many parents of children with ADHD or Autism are encouraged by doctors to just give pills instead of working through difficult behaviour the hard way (diet/ exercise/ good habits / good environment).

It seems extremely unprofessional.
Every time me or any of my family were administered to a hospital, the staff explicitly asked about known drug allergies. My spouse has allergy to NSAIDs which are of very common use, so I remember the fact of being asked.
Is UK so backwards behind Eastern Europe?

This is really sad.

And I agree, Doctors in the UK are extremely arrogant and negligent. I hope whoever denied the family's wishes loses their license or at least pays just a heavy price. What a horrible way to lose your child.

Sounds like a clear cut case of negligence and malpractice.

There are more details in this article about this mans' treatment.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris ... ed-1463604