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.
Very sad to hear this. God bless the Travolta’s and their loved ones.
You're simply a simpleton. Life is revered here at FR.
“Jett does not speak at all. He has not even been taught how to communicate. We struggle every week to pay for our daughter’s therapy. How dare he [Travolta] ruin his own son’s chances of recovering! We want to get the word out on this.”
http://crabbieshollywood.blogspot.com/2007/05/john-travolta-accused-of-abusing.html
http://x17video.com/celebrity_video/john_travolta/john_travolta_and_his_family_a.php
Are you sure she's not referring to the autism and not the seizures? My brother in law is autistic and has been since he got his immunizations at age 6. Oh, and my in-laws have the home movies to prove he was an active, happy, smiling kid at one time. Now he's in his fifties and at best he'll fake a smile sometimes.
Prayers for your son.
Just because a person doesn’t talk does not mean that someone is autistic.
My daughter did not talk until she was 5 1/2, and she is not autistic. She has a brain injury.
Also, her speech got worse when she had her seizure last year.
There’s a lot of people mis-diagnosed with austism that do not have it, and the treatments for those people is radically different than autism treatment.
I am glad Jenny Mccarthy has made this issue known.
I also hope that the death of Jett and his mysterious illness will bring some more light to the issue of autism.
Why? Maybe it will bring to light epilepsy and seizures, and help people with seizure disorders.
I would love to see some seizure warning devices.
Sadly, it seems that the autistic kids always get forgotten a few weeks after one of these events. The kids I really feel bad for are the ones with Auspergers’ which leaves them more or less functional but crippled socially.
I never knew about Jet and Kawaskai Syndrome. I looked up some of Travolta’s comments, and I think he is being misquoted. Jet had Kawasaki’s at 2 1/2, which is the same time my daughter was diagnosed. She had a 105 degree fever for four days. We may never know the full extent of the damage, but she barely lived. It is extremely rare, and I’ve only known one other parent whose child had it.
It may be that while Jet showed signs of autism, that fever sent him into the toilet. In the case of my brother, a high fever preceeded his epilepsy.
They believe in medical for certain conditions, but not brain or neurological ones. You guys should read this article about seizure medication and the scientilogists.
http://www.whyaretheydead.net/room758.html
Excerpt of Die dunkle Seite von Scientology - According to the records, Heribert P. died august 28, 1988, during the night from a heavy epileptic attack. He hit his head on the night table. (...) The scientology doctor reports that he prescribed vitamins for his patient -dispite regular attacks- in stead of treating him with proper medication. Such medication was indeed not detected in his blood during the post-mortem examination.
Who was Heribert Pfaff and why is he dead after his scientologist doctor prescribed vitamins for him while he knew that his patient suffered severe epileptic seizures?
We have considered a seizure dog. Apparently there is something in them that can detect a siezure coming on and allow the person to put on a helmet.
http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/epilepsyusa/aboutseizuredogs.cfm
Yes, she claimed it was Kawasaki Syndrome from carpet cleaning chemicals.
However this is just her speculation because there is no known reason for Kawasaki Syndrome to begin. However there is treatment. Since her son did not improve, it means they left the treatment up to the no-medication Scientologists, or didn’t treat it at all.
Eitherway, it’s not good for the parents or Scientology. If Christian Scientists can be charged for neglect, I see no reason Scientologists can’t. Of course Christian Scientists don’t have the financial resources and insulation that Scientology does.
This is why it is hard for me to have sympathy for them.
On one hand I can empathize with their trauma and pain over losing a child.
On the other hand, he very likely wasn’t getting the help he should have gotten because of their belief in Scientology and that burden is squarely on their shoulders.
I hope his death will wake some people up..and maybe they will think twice before joining that cult.
There’s a lot of non-Scientologist that don’t treat seizures with medication.
Anti-seizure medication is really nasty. The first one my daughter was on made her literally crazy. She was having tons of temper tantrums, kicked wholes in our walls, made her start stuttering, made her word finding abilities (speech) worse, and then she slept a ton. We finally found a better medication, but there was a risk that she could have a life-threatening rash with it.
Now, there are warnings of most anti-seizure medications increasing the risks for depression and suicide.
I know plenty of families that choose to work on lifestyle and diet changes to control seizures.
I do agree with you on that. My daughter suffers from non-epileptic siezures and I took her off at the age of 9 months because at 9 months she wasn’t even rolling over. The medication made her so doped up, she was drunk 90% of the time. She also didn’t have seizures regularly.
However, I still watch her closely because you never know when one will come on.
I’m not blaming John or Kelly for their son’s death, I don’t want anyone to assume that. I don’t know how often their son had seizures or what his diagnosis was. I just question the Kawasaki Syndrome from carpet cleaning fluid (as there is no scientific link whatsoever) and I also question if they had him in real MEDICAL TREATMENT and not some scientology fluff.
That’s the part that concerns me. That there are parents who are refusing their children needed therapy and treatment in exchange for hookey psuedo-cult science.
Very sad. I cannot imagine what it must be like for a parent to lose a child.
I know what its like. Believe me, its enough to drive a person insane.
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