Keri had a complete and total meltdown earlier today. So here we are at the E.R working on hour 11. They have found her a bed or are working on finding her a bed at a pediatric psych unit.
Earlier today, Keri was agitated – for what reason is unknown. It started out with being upset and screaming and lost in her own little world. Her Granddad came over, Keri wanted nothing to do with him. All she did was grunt and scream in response to him.
About an hour or so after Keri’s Grandad left, she started to meltdown. Crying, screaming, trying to over turn the table in the kitchen. She knocked over a chair before flinging herself onto the couch. Once on the couch her rage did not stop. Keri continued with the self harm. She was pulling her hair. Keri was scratching herself – but left little to no marks since her nails had been recently cut. She was biting her arms. She then looked at her wrist and said “bite wrist” and proceeded to gnaw at her wrist.
I tried to talk her down, but she did not heed or hear my words. I tried to get in to restain her. But she was linging at me, trying to scratch me, bite me, hit and kick. Keri actually kicked me off the couch. There was no way for me to get close to her. Keri also knocked items off the end table and threw the small drawer to the end table.
A while ago, Keri cracked the one of the windows by the couch and there are 2 other windows in the same area. I was afraid that she would further hurt herself or break a window or hurt me. There was no choice but to call 911.
The cops came, Keri stopped and was too busy staring at them. She was ok in the ambulance. In the hospital, she started to act up. They gave her a shot of something to calm her. Once Keri was calm, the nurse took blood samples and a urine sample.
While on this shot of whatever, Keri was still with her “not so great smile and laugh” and grunting. The agresstion was gone. Later on when this med wore off, Keri started to try to pinch, bite, and hit me. When she realized she could not get to me, Keri started to try to climb the bed. I could not get her down and had to call the nurse in. At this point neither the nurse nor I could get her settled down. The nurse had to call in another nurse and 2 security guards to help restain her. There were 2 nurses, 2 security guards, and me – 5 people having to restrain her!!! 5 people to hold down a preteen girl who weighs 108 lbs and is 4 ft 7 inches tall!!!
My sister Maggie and John walked in as this 5 people restaining scenario played on The doctor gave her Ativan instead of the other medication. This calmed her and got her to finally go to sleep.
Come to find out … there was one hospital that I will call Hosptial M had agreed to take Keri. I filled out the paper work to have Keri transported.
I will write more tomorrow since it is 3 am. And a kind nurse just brought in a stretcher in for me to sleep on. Trying to sleep sitting up right in 2 chairs pushed together is uncomfortable to the highesr degree.
A Family's Journey With Autism 
Sadly, this is a typical day in the live of someone living with severe autism. The hospitals would do better giving her an IV of Banana Bag with B vitamins than some idiotic acute IM injection of what I could only surmise was the typical ATIVAN given to every single autistic person who ever comes into an ER. This is a complex disorder and there’s even genetic research that shows some autistic person are HLA-B genetically sensitive to drugs, causing a mild form a Steven Johnson Syndrome, like ulcers in throat….so a total body check and med analysis should always be done..holy moly in the age of autism we are so far behind…hospitals need extra funding to train staff how to deal with autistic patients.
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