Posted on 01/02/2009 2:01:13 PM PST by Bobalu
Rand Memorial Hospital in the Bahamas tells TMZ the son of John Travolta died today.
We're told 16-year-old Jett was vacationing with Travolta and wife Kelly Preston. We do not know the circumstances of his death.
There have been reports that Jett was autistic, though Travolta has denied it, saying he suffers from Kawasaki Syndrome, a condition which often leads to heart disease.
UPDATE: 4:00 PM ET -- Travolta's attorney Michael Ossi says Jett suffered a seizure at his family's vacation home at the Old Bahama Bay Hotel on Grand Bahama Island. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful and he died on scene.
UPDATE: 4:40 PM ET -- Restview Memorial Mortuary and Crematorium in the Bahamas tells TMZ Jett's body would be transferred to Restview on Monday.
UPDATE 4:54 PM ET -- A police spokeswoman says Jett hit his head in a bathtub and apparently that triggered the seizure.
Exactly, as I mentioned on this thread yesterday. I work for a doctor and we have several patients with unexplained seizure disorder, one even had a procedure done at UCLA and still suffers seizures. It is a fallacy that drugs cure everything. Money doesn’t cure it all, either. My heart goes out to you, and others with the same continuing seizure disorders.
Every doctor touted Dilantin as the cure all to me and my seizure rate went up on Dilantin, even after receiving it via IV in the hospital. My seizure rate went down after the introduction of Depakote and Gabapentin and since I quit the Dilantin on my own I have been seizure free. Doctors tell me I was nuts for quitting the Dilantin but then can’t explain why I have been seizure free since I did.
I still though can’t go anywhere on my own without the fear of having a seizure and getting hurt or robbed or worse. Of course I can’t drive so I get around on public transportation when I have too. I wear a medical necklace and have ID in my wallet and luckily have only ever had 1 seizure out in public and luckily for me it was around people who helped and called 911.
I’m glad you are not having more seizures, but I do know it affects your life in so many ways, even when you are free of them, you never know when it might happen again.
The doctors really don’t know much about seizures. I’m not looking forward to my daughter being an adult. At least now, I set the rules.
I will say she is being very good about everything. She doesn’t have anything with caffiene or artificial sweetners, and she checkes the ingredient list to make sure before she tries something new. She wouldn’t even eat a little coffee ice cream at a friends birthday part.
She never complains about having someone with her at all times. We did have a baby monitor in her room, and she never complained about that.
I hope that the doctors gain better seizure treatments for you and for everyone with seizures.
http://www.tmz.com/
John Travolta's Son: Meds Ultimately Did Harm
Posted Jan 4th 2009 12:29PM by TMZ Staff
TMZ has learned more about the medical condition of John Travolta's son, Jett, and the medication that ultimately didn't work.
We're now told the grand mal seizures Jett suffered were "frequent and extremely serious." Travolta's lawyers, Michael Ossi and Michael McDermott, tell us "each seizure was like a death," with Jett losing consciousness and convulsing.
We now know Jett was taking a drug called Depakote, a strong anti-seizure medication. There have been reports Travolta refused to give his son anti-seizure meds because of Scientology but those stories are not true.
Jett had been having seizures on an average of every four days, until he started taking Depakote. Ossi and McDermott say the drug initially worked, reducing the frequency to approximately once every three weeks.
Jett took Depakote for "several years," but it eventually lost its effectiveness, according to Ossi and McDermott. They say the Travoltas were concerned about possible physical damage. And, Jett went back to having around one seizure a week. So Travolta and Preston, after consulting neurosurgeons, stopped administering the drug. No one is suggesting withdrawal of the medicine in any way caused the fatal episode.
I am certain that celebrities just appreciate the details of their personal lives and tragedies discussed, dissed and (rarely) defended by anonymous posters on the Internet, who live their fantasy lives through them (the celebrities)!
Mine have been somewhat compounded by my back injury. I have screws now in my lower spine and I spend every day in pain and take Vicodin or Norco a few times a day. Whenever doctors want to add or change a medicine there is having to worry if it is going to affect my seizures or my medications. I too go through having to read ingredients to see if something is going to affect me.
Only those suffering from seizures and their family and close friends can realize the impact it will have on someones life. I even had to give up my love of fishing for fear I would have a seizure and fall off the boat and drown. Also because of the injury and the seizures, my doctor is sending me tomorrow for a psychological evaluation because of the depression I have gone through and tried to hide. It is not a fun situation for anyone involved. Even my daughter has been affected by it as I had my first seizure on Christmas morning 2004 right in front of her, she has never forgotten. It has not been a fun 4+ years of my life.
Please, try to hold up a bit on condemning them.
Our beloved first born daughter died when she was 21. She was diagnosed at 4 years with a rare heart defect, Ebstein’s syndrome.
A few weeks before she died, she wore a heart monitor for 48 hours to assess how well her heart was functioning, and it showed everything to be perfect.
But, she died from a sudden cardiac arrhythmia three weeks later. And none of the cardiologists could figure out why, for there were no early warning signs.
Sometimes we have to reconcile ourselves with just not knowing, even though we desperately want explanations.
God Bless Jett and his parents, for I know the shock, the loss, the desperation they now feel. Life will never be the same again for them. They must carry on for their daughter.
It will take years for them to feel normal again, and even then, it isn’t normal.
Unless I’ve missed it, no one has talked about these seizure medications and how strong they are. Having worked with a lot of neuro patients with chronic seizures, these seizure drugs can create zombies out of children. Parents have said, “I want my child back.” “She walks around like she’s drunk.” “I don’t recognize my child anymore.” “It’s like he’s looking right through us.” “These drugs take my child’s brain and suck the life out of him.” Many of these kids become so sedate or “out of it” that for their own protection, they’re fitted with helmets because of the seizures, the medication or both.
Having a child who is prone to seizures is an emotional journey that sometimes never ends. Seeing your child seize for the first time, I’d guess that all parents never want to see their child go through it again. Wouldn’t any parent want to do anything to make it stop? However for some parents who’ve dealt with scores of drugs and treaments where their children become unrecognizable, sometimes getting their “child back” for a while is where they need to go.
We’re in the middle of having my daughter evaluated by a psychiatrist. Most of the time she is okay, and she has been much better since being on anti-seizure medicaiton. However, she has these terrible tantrums. They are worse when she is going to school, and she doesn’t get enough sleep (like 10 hours) and she has frustrating homework.
I’ll be curious to see what the psychiatrist has to say. She’s doing tons of blood work on my daughter, so I’m curious what those results are.
I’ve talked a little bit about it, but I think you just stated everything wonderfully.
My daughter was on one anti-seizure medication (keppra) and it was living H***. I was afraid she would hurt herself or my other kids. I think I would have taken seizures over that becaues she was not herself. Thank God, we found another drug (lamictal), and it is much better for her.
I began having depression and anxiety attacks which were treated with Ativan for a while before I asked off of it. Ativan just put me totally out of it. They don’t know if the effects of the seizures on my brain causes them or what. I am soo tired of the blood work, may as well put a damn beer tap on my arm. My GP always wants blood, the Neurologist always wants blood, now tomorrow they want blood, between IVs and blood draws my arms look like I am shooting up.
Aspergers is a mixed bag. The people who have it are frequently considered rude because they can’t read other people’s emotions. Aspergers people have no empathy for others and can end up being very cruel when in fact their cruelty is just abject disregard. They can’t help it.Full autistics get cut some slack because they’re totally non-functional. so it’s worse, really, to deal with Aspergers because they’re functional enough to be mistaken for ‘normal’ and that actually causes lots of problems.
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