David’s Journey: Autism and the pandemic

The pandemic has greatly affected all humans all over the world. We have seen people we love go and people that have been greatly affected in health, economically, and emotionally. In this instance our family is asking for help for David a 10 year old boy with autism, which has been affected by the other side of the pandemic the one that we hardly speak about. Prior to March of last year David was doing great, he had behaviors that come with the diagnosis, but nothing very serious. David went to ABA, OT, and speech therapy. He also loved taking outings to mountain Charleston, going to restaurants, parks, and his favorite was target. David is considered non verbal, but had enough words that he could communicate his needs and was independent for the most part. March of 2020 schools shutdown, parents began to work from home and all of David’s favorite places closed. We tried to make the most of all the family being home, but David preferred being in his room and keeping to himself. We figured our new home life was a little overwhelming and he needed some space. By April 2020, David began hardly eating, then completely stopped. We tried helping him through this but were unsuccessful. He also started being severely aggressive. By May 2020, we decided to send his 3 sisters to grandmas house. We wanted to keep them safe because of Davids aggression. Months went by and behaviors increased and nothing we did seemed to help. David had stopped eating. We did all we could, but nothing helped. We took him to Summerlin Hospital in Las Vegas, they did many tests and the results were his not eating affected his digestive system, which gave him H-pylori, which caused many stomach ulcers and gastritis. He was in pain and since he is non verbal he could not communicate this. He had a clean out and was started on medication. We waited for him to eat. This did not happen so a gtube was placed a week later. We were in the hospital over a month. After going home behaviors decreased a little and he began slightly eating. Which wasn’t enough so we continued gtube feeds. By October, he completely stopped eating again. We took him to his GI doctor and he was switched medications but things continued the same. His aggressive behavior began getting worse. David eventually did not want his g-tube feedings. Dad had to quit his job so we could both be home and be able to get him the nutrition he needed. He started therapy/school back up and we hoped this would help, unfortunately it didn’t. David began to self injure. Biting himself and hitting his head so hard he would put it through the drywall. He also stopped going to the bathroom. We moved a mattress into his room and were with him 24/7 making sure he was safe. We went to many places inquired about many resources and had no luck partially due to the pandemic and the other part being Nevada didn’t have much help. We were barely getting by living to keep David alive. On March 8, another schedule change pushed David over the edge. His therapy/school asked that we began picking David up at 11:45am instead of the usual 9:00am to 1:45pm. Since food was a big trigger to him, he had his greatest behaviors beginning at that time. When they started cooking. The pure smell of food made him aggressive. We understood and did as asked. This sent David into what we know now as psychosis. He slept not one minute that week and was aggressive towards himself and us non stop. We were having to hold him to keep that from happening day and night. After a long week we decided we needed to take the next step to ask of help. We took him to the Sunrise Children’s hospital in Las Vegas. We had to put our fear of him being institutionalized to the side because we knew this was now out of our hands. They gave him 2 shots to get him to calm down. He finally went to sleep, after having the doctors, psychiatrist, and social worker come in. They met as a team and and came in with an answer. “Unfortunately you are in the wrong state, we can’t help you, we have no choice, but to send you home.” They explained that there are not many resources in Nevada for kids like David. Also that he is non verbal so they were unable to psychiatrically evaluate him. I pleaded for said the most they could do for us, was let him sleep and we would have to go home as soon as he woke up. We went home defeated. The next day my parents stopped by and said we needed to do something else. Go somewhere, somebody had to help, they suggested the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and that Tuesday March 16 we got in the car and drove here. Leaving our home, kids, and our life without knowing when we would return. The 4 and a half hour drive took 10 and a half hours. My husband drove as I tried to hold David in the back seat to keep him from hurting himself, my husband, and I. We almost didn’t make it quite a few times. But Wednesday around 1:00am we were finally here. They immediately put us in the ED. David had injuries all over himself as well as us. We explained to them our whole story and they admitted us. We have now been here over a month. They did many test on David, an endoscopy, colonoscopy, CT scan, MRI, EEG, EKG, and many more. After biopsies came back we were told he had inflammation in his asophogus and stomach, he was in a lot of pain. The medication given to him in Vegas did not control this, and even swallowing his own saliva caused him pain. He was started on the right medications and has slowly began getting better. Although behaviors still remain, food is a big trigger for him still, and he is till aggressive. The psychiatrist here said he needs an in clinic program to get him the help he needs. Intense behavior intervention, feeding therapy, and other things to work on. Unfortunately, because David has g-tube, many behavior clinics won’t take him. Only one which is, Cumberland hospital in New Kent, Virginia. We have been accepted and are waiting for placement, he is on a waitlist. Placement should take about 2 weeks. This brings us to the reason why we created this go fund me. His dad has been out of work now for 4 months and insurance does not cover transportation or the hospital that David needs to be at. We need to make our own way to Virginia and find somewhere to live for that time. We were told he would be there anywhere from 2 months to a year. Although we will not be able to stay at the clinic with him we want to be there at every visit. We want our family to be reunited and to be able to live all together again and we know this is the only way to do it. We have not gave up on David and will not do so. He wasn’t like this before this pandemic and I know with help we could get him back. Thank you for taking your time to read our story, even if you are unable to donate please share this. Let’s raise awareness for kids like David and hope one day we could have more resources for them with out having to leave our home or travel across the country.




A big huge thank you from the bottom of our heart to the Phoenix children’s hospital and all of their staff which has made this experience a better one and has given us hope and continue  to do so while we are here. We are forever grateful.