Carinne, I am so sorry for the lost of your sweet son. Thank you for trying to help others with this info. I had never heard of this and it could save lives. thanks
Yes - please share this with whomever you think it might benefit. It was in the papers and on the news here and you could look up the articles and such if that would help influence those in charge. The local paper in town in Anchorage Daily News and one of the local station - KTUU had the written transcript of their report on their website. The main article in the paper was published on May 28. If it helps to make it even more personal (as I've found is usually the case) you can also look up his obituary -which was published on May 30. There is just no reason why any person who has a tendency to run off shouldn't be able to be tracked. If prisoners under house arrest can be monitored 24/7 then why can't a 7 year old kid? In the long run, I'm sure it would save money if they could be found quickly instead of taking up hours and hours of man power to look for them. If people can learn from Alex and help other kids then it would make me feel so much better. Nothing can fix what happened to us or make all the pain go away, but saving other kids would definately help
Carinne- I am so sorry for your loss. You and your family are in my prayers. Thank you for sharing this information.Carinne,
I am so incredibly sorry for your loss. You are an amazing person to be able to come share your story here in hopes of helping to save a life. I would bet that you have already accomplished that. Thanks for sharing your story.
I am so sorry. I have a 4 year old Autistic son - Alex. I am in such fear that he will blot. I am trying to get the local government here to participate in Project Lifesaver.
If you do not mind I would like to pass on your story to them.
Carinne -- I am in tears as I read your post. Please accept my sincerest condolences. My husband has always told me "some people have it worse off." That never gave me comfort. I'm not sure it's giving me comfort now, but I sure know after reading your post that there is definitely something worse than having a child with autism -- not having that child. I can't begin to imagine your grief. I am SO, SO sorry. I also have to thank your for putting your grief to good use by posting about it here. I'm sure you've saved some other children's lives by doing it. My own son is 16 and had never been an eloper, so we didn't have this issue. But I understand that it is a HUGE issue for many. I am going to copy your post and send it to one person in particular whose 5.5 yo moderate functioning son has just started eloping. Perhaps it will save his life. Thank you. You and your family have my deepest sympathies. Thank you for sharing this information.As others have said, I too am so sad and sorry to hear about your precious son. Please know that we all are praying for you- you seem to have amazing strength to come on this board and reach out to help others. You are an inspiration to us all.
Thank you for sharing the information- God bless you and your family.
Your story is acting indeed like a LifeSaver, and I thank you for thinking about our children while missing yours so terribly. Thank you. so very much.
Our group just recently had a discussion about this topic, following the recent death of another 7 year old autistic boy. It motivated me to build a phone tree with 2 dozen neighbors. I have 3 "captains" who have everyone's address, home and cell phone numbers. Should Cole get out of the house, all I have to do is speed dial one of the three captains already loaded into my cellphone, and a search party will fan out immediately.
If technology can track Martha Steward, then it certainly should be made more accessible for children in need. You have helped do just that.
I will kiss and hold my Cole just a few minutes longer tonight on behalf of your sweet boy. My sincerest condolences to you.
LeAnne
Thanks so much for thinking about us when you are going through this hardCarrine,
Thank you so much for your post and advocating this cause. This issue is very raw to all of us too lately as we read more and more about kids with ASD having this same sad fate. I am so sorry for your loss and wish you much peace and strength at this time.
Thank you for taking on the urgent and crucial job of spreading the word about Project Lifesaver. No one should have to go through what your family is going through. You have my greatest sympathy.
Lately we have been seeing this all over the news. Its very sad. Im sorry for your loss! Thanks for the advice.
I am so so sorry. I cannot imagine what you are going through and went through. Thank you so much for your advice and information. Thank you!I am so sorry for your loss. Thank you so much for sharing your story and the info. I am thinking of and praying for you...I'm so sorry for your loss, as well. Thank you for taking the time to share this information with others -- you're a wonderful person to be thinking of other people's children when you just lost yours. Your story made me cry.Corncernedpa.
I am so sorry to hear about your loss. I will continue to keep you and your family in our prayers. Makes me wonder why so many autistic children are drawn to water.
Karman
Carinne...SO SORRY to hear about your son... THANK YOU for sharing it with us on this message board...Thanks for thinking of others in the midst of your terrible pain. i am sorry that you miss Alex so much.My son is High Functioning so he is not at risk to run,but he is registered with the police in a Autism file ,that way if they ever have to deal with him or help him his Info is there.
God Bless you and your Family, Please if you need to talk ,Pm me and I will give you my EMail.
Linda
I am so very sorry for your loss. Your story really hit home with me as I am facing my own little "escape artist". Mine is only 4 1/2 years old, and have had to place alarms on top of multiple locks on our doors due to his most recent escape. I have never in my life been so terrified. I constantly ask myself, "is it enough?, is everything I am doing, going to protect him?" So far we have been very lucky, he hasn't gotten hurt, but I live in terror trying to prevent that day from happening. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing something so painful to all of us. Your story breaks my heart, but makes me more aware that you cannot underestimate these children.Carinne,
I cannot even imagine how you are able to function this well after only one month to try to help others. God bless you! How is the rest of your family doing? Do you have other children?
Thinking of you in prayer -
Wow. I'm tearing up just reading your story. Thanks for sharing.
I am trying to let people know of our tragic experience so that people can learn. We have a 7 1/2 year old autistic boy - Alex. He's very low functioning - can't talk, not potty trained - struggles with communicaiton, etc. He's our little escape artist. Last month on May 26 he escaped out of the house. It took 2 seconds. He's escaped before and we've had to keep all the doors dead bolted and watch him constantly. I'm sure you all know that trying to watch your children every second of every day is impossible. He just loves being outside and tries everything to get out. We had just put a monitoring system on him called IonKids. It works great to send out an alarm to let us know when/if he gets out, but it only has a 500 yard range and its difficult to help us find him.
Anyway, he got out, the alarm went off, but when I ran outside he wasn't anywhere to be seen. 2 hours, 6 police officers, 1 search and rescue team and countless friends later - a family friend found him in a lake. He didn't survive. I found out later that day from the search and rescue team that they have GPS monitoring systems in place for people who wander off called projectlifesaver.com. Here is Alaska they can find someone anywhere in the city within an hour - some places can find them in under 20 minutes. I had never heard of this system. I want to make sure others know about this. As far as I know most states have the system in place. Please look into this if you have an escape artist too. Alex was such a sweet little boy and we miss him so much. He lived with a horrible illness and was so cheerful, sweet and happy. I hope this helps someone
I'm not angry at anyone or blame anyone, but I was a little shocked that this program (projectlifesaver.com) was available and I'd never heard of it. Not only had I never heard about it, but neither had any of his teachers, therapists, and many other people I was in contact with that all deal with people with special needs. The police department mentioned that they are trying to get the word out on this and would be interested in having our help in the future if we'd like. I don't know if this is available in all state or not, but every parents should be aware of this program. If its not available in your area, you should lobby to get it. I would have much more peace if I knew that even one child was now protected because I was able to help other parents find out about this. I just dont understand why a program like this isn't advertised and promoted all on every television station. Every parent of special needs kids should have this information. Hopefully our tragedy will help other.
Enjoy your children and give them hugs for me. I know how difficult they can be. Autism is one of the hardest illnesses to deal with. Alex was so frustrating at times and I worked hard to keep my patience with him sometimes. But, he was the one trapped in the prision and he was still such a sweetheart most of the time. I didn't realize how much laughter he brought into our family. Its interesting how we could be so frustrated with him and laugh with him at the same time. Like I said, kiss and hug your kids for me. We didn't get his kisses often, but they were something special when we did.
Thanks
Carinne