John Travolta's son dies
 

That's sad... :(

http://www.tmz.com/2009/01/02/john-travoltas-son-dies/

That's terrible. John and Kelly are frequent visitors here (Kelly's a native) and the community's grown to love their family.

RIP, Jett.

That's so sad. My prayers go out to them during this terrible time. :(

:(

I don't know why I keep thinking that Jett (and Ella) are still under 10.

That is such a tragedy. My prayers go out to the Travolta family.

I know, right? Every time I read about Jett and Ella, I keep thinking they're still very young. I just about did a double take when I read that he was 16. Same thing with Tom Cruise's kids (the older ones).

:(

What sad, sad news! No parent should have to lose their child.

How very sad.

OMG how awful. I couldn't read the report because it had TMZ splashed on top of it - did it go into detail about the seizures? There are two kinds.

No it didn't. The two articles I read (the one above and one on yahoo) said he had a history of seizures, but not what kind.

This is so sad. Prayers for the family.

:( :(

When I heard it on the news, they said that when he had the seizure he hit his head on the bathtub, but I can't find that in print anywhere. They may have been speculating.

How sad. :(

My heart goes out to John and Kelly.

AGDee, heres a link to the article I found that reports Jett hitting his head.http:

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/autopsy-pl...ltas-son/17127

CNN today also said that he was autistic. I don't know anything about Kawasaki disease

My somewhat limited understanding is that it is a sort of vasculitis that affects various parts of the body, especially the heart (causing coronary aneurysms and increasing risk of an MI). But, I would obviously defer to BigRedBeta or one of the other MDs or soon-to-be MDs on the board.

I'm kind of surprised the Travoltas accepted a diagnosis of autism considering the fact that they're scientologists. I thought they didn't believe in mental illness?

According to the first article posted, it said John Travolta did not believe Jett had autism. Travolta says Jett suffered from Kawasaki disease.

I don't think many people on the Spectrum (or the parents & teachers of children on the Spectrum) think of it as 'illness' and certainly not a 'mental illness".

Okay... it's a disease of the mind... but not mental. I getcha.

Kawasaki disease:
It usually effect children and is also known as Kawasaki sydrome or mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome. It is one of the two leading causes of children's acquired heart disease

"The coronary arteries are most often affected.Part of a coronary wall can be weakened and balloon in an aneurysm. A blood clot can form in this weakened area and block the artery, sometimes leading to a heart attack. The aneurysm can also burst, but this rarely happens. Other changes include inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) or the sac surrounding the heart (pericarditis). Arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms) or abnormal functioning of some heart valves also can occur.
Usually all the heart problems go away in five or six weeks, and there's no lasting damage. Sometimes coronary artery damage persists, however.
An arrhythmia or damaged heart muscle can be detected using an electrocardiogram (EKG). An echocardiogram (or "echo") is used to look for possible damage to the heart or coronary arteries."

http://www.americanheart.org/present...dentifier=4634

I believe they both have very similar triats and KD is mistaken a lot of the times for autism....i am no one and this is what someone told me regarding the diease

Heartbreaking news. I've always been a John Travolta fan. My husband and I still quote some of his Vinnie Barbarino lines from Welcome Back, Kotter. I can't imagine what he & Kelly Preston & the little girl are going through right now.

John Travolta is one of my favorite actors. :( I was so sorry to hear of his loss.

The reason some are saying that his son had autism is that according to CNN people don't normally have Kawasaki after the age of 8. CNN said this morning that the child was SUSPECTED to be autistic,but because John doesn't believe in drugs and therapy, he chose instead to say/believe that the child had Kawasaki.

The kid had issues. He was 16 and holding hands with his parents. I also read there was a baby monitor in his room.

Autism spectrum disorders are neurodevelopmental disorders (ie, impairment of the development of the neurological system), not a disease.

But I'm with you on the Scientologist angle.

OK, maybe I'm completely missing something here. But it sounds to me like saying "he has KD, he isn't autistic" is kind of like saying "I like fish, not Prada." I mean the 2 conditions don't seem like they are even along the same lines/spectrum. Does anyone get what I'm saying?

I read somewhere (sorry, not sure exactly where) that the autism spectrum disorders and Kawasaki's have some common aspects. So, if one was going to try to explain away autism, Kawasaki's would be a convenient way to do so.

I have a family member who is an expert in autism and other similar developmental disorders, so I'll try to ask her for a more detailed explanation.

ETA: I also thought I read somewhere that Scientologists don't "believe" in autism. You really hope that some deficiency in diagnosis/treatment didn't lead to this kid's death.

Totally get what you are saying.

The other variable is that reportedly he had lifelong seizures. Neither autism nor KD are connected to seizures. Have there been confirmations as to whether he was on medication for the seizures? I am somewhat familiar with the whole scientology angle with meds, but do they use meds for life-threatening conditions?

I think there is a connection between seizures and autism.

A quick search yielded this article: http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/ep...ndepilepsy.pdf

From a quick glance, it looks like there is some connection, especially in early childhood.

I don't know. From what I know about Kawasaki Syndrome, it doesn't sound like a seizure disorder, or like anything in the ASD. There's not even a link between that and carpet cleaner!

I thought the same thing....it sounded strange to me!

Its still very tragic!

soon to be MD here:

Kawasaki's probably had nothing to do with his death. Usually kids get it when they are young, around 2, and the great majority survive it and are fine. The problem affects the heart vasculature. I had a patient with it once when I was on pediatrics rotation, and it was this awful rash and he had very high fever. And there might be an antigenic cause (germ) but cleaners as a cause? No.

Now being on the autism spectrum, who knows? But the two (KD and Autism) are not related, or at least there is no evidence that I know of linking the two. From what the reports said he bumped his head and had a seizure, and unfortunately died after that. Which is defintely makes more sense to me. In any case, it is still very sad.

As the future pediatrician, I'll weigh in on the Kawasaki's Disease too. Blackngoldengirl is correct. When I heard about this on the radio this morning I was so confused as to what KD had to with seizures that I assumed the announcer had made a mistake.

Most kids, when treated correctly with IV immunoglobin have zero long term complications. Untreated it leads to heart problems, but that's only in about 20-25% of untreated kids.

It's not a well understood condition, but current thinking leans towards it having an infectious cause...a least in large part to the fact that it usually occurs in mini-outbreaks within a community. But like a lot of things, the actual way in which you get it is likely a genetically susceptible individual who sustains the appropriate insult at the right time.

The main diagnostic features are high, persistent fever for more than 5 days; one-sided lymph node swelling that's typically a singular isolated lymph node; widespread rash; crusting/cracking of the mouth/lips; swelling of hands or feet; and red, irritated eyes.


It's definitely something you don't want to miss as a pediatrician because of the heart problems, but doesn't make sense in light of what happened in this instance.

Okay I admit it...a little chuckle escaped me when I read your post.

But I'm just glad I'm not the only one who thought this...

He had recurrent seizures and had recently been taken off of Depakote. They said it stopped working. I guess it had gone from 1 grand mal per 3 weeks to 1 per week.

It is a sad situation.

Former nannies have said that John, Kelly, and Ella ate the finest organic foods available while letting him do nothing but sit in front of a tv/video game for HOURS eating nothing but junk food. They said because John and Kelly would not admit to him having autism, he had not been given the opportunity to learn communication skills that an autism program would have taught him. And, some not-so-nice things have also been said that Kelly was not a hands-on mom with him at ALL. Whenever he had a meltdown, she yelled at the nanny to "handle it."

I don't believe everything I read, especially when it comes to former employees. But, I do believe that when these things that had been said BEFORE his passing are viewed and considered now, it shows a family in great denial about their son's condition...

Another question - is there a pattern of autistic children also having seizures/being epileptic, or is this just a coincidence?

There is a link between autism and seizures (a link to an article on it is somewhere on this thread).

I just think this whole thing is sad. I thought it sounded odd when they talked about him having a nanny that slept in the same room as him and monitors to let people know when he got up. But if he had autism, it all makes sense.

I feel sorry for this poor child who never got the treatment he needed because of his parents religion.