| Slide 54:
So, in review, we’re looking at hypoperfusion. In published
reports, by the way, decreased bloodflow means decreased function. If the brain is blue,
it is shut down – it is not working correctly. The key point here is that there is no
measurable loss of tissue on the MRI’s on the vast majority of your children. This
says that you are looking at areas of the brain that are shut down and not working, but
that do not have pre-existing damage and are thankfully not injured by everything we can
measure. If this is not brain damage, that means, in theory, that your children started
off with normal brains.
Now, when I said that a number of years ago, of course, it was a statement. At this point
I can say to all of you that any child that fits into this pattern of autistic regression,
what we’re talking about is NIDS, these kids started off with normal brains and their
brains eventually shut down into this disorder. They did not start off autistic; they did
not start off as PDD.
The critical part about that unfortunately, is that it is
not how the world looks at your children. On my last trip to New York, I had a number of
parents screaming at me that Doug Flutie had just gone on one of the morning TV shows
saying that his son, who is 7 years old, is autistic. He realized that there was nothing
he was going to be able to do to help his son talk, but that he was going to start another
research foundation to study autism and try to help other children.
This is the "gospel," in a sense, from all the organized
autism societies. If your child is autistic and he’s now 7 years old –
we’re sorry, but what are you going to do. Well, we have children that are 8, 9, 10,
and now 12 years old who were not talking before and are now talking because of medical
intervention and the help of Dr. Susan Fosnot, a speech pathologist, who, as many of you
have heard me say, is magnificent.
The trouble is as long as the world assumes you
are starting off with brain damage, not only do you have that pessimistic view of the
autism societies out there, but one of the anecdotes that is distressing right now is all
of you know that Dan Marino is involved with the Autism Society. I have heard from parents
in Florida that Dan Marino is thrilled that his son is in a normal kindergarten, I think
now first or second grade. No one will tell you that his child is normal. But if
you’re told that your child is going to be retarded and never get to school, and now
is in kindergarten or first grade, you’re thrilled. But if someone said to him that
his child started off with the potential to go to college, I don’t think he would be
so happy right now. Maybe he and others would be saying that we need to do more for these
children. This is the battle you’re all fighting. No one thinks your children have it
in them. |
