|
| |
Questions Raised About Jett Travolta’s Death and His Behavior
6-Jan-2009
Written by: Janelle Gary
Questions are being raised once again about Jett Travolta’s condition in the wake of his death.
Millions of children and adults have seizures in the United States, but dying from one is rare. That only fuels speculation about the life and death of Jett Travolta, actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s 16-year-old son.
The death certificate listed “seizure disorder” as the cause of death, according to an undertaker at Restview Memorial funeral home in the Bahamas, where the teen died Friday, Jan. 2. Family representatives and lawyers declined requests Tuesday for more information, which raised even more questions about the teen's health. According to AP News, one of Travolta’s attorneys said the teen had a history of seizures.
Media outlets, particularly gossip magazines and blogs, have long speculated and suggested the teen also had autism — a claim John Travolta denied. In fact, the Travoltas have said little about their son's condition and his medical treatment over the years.
According to People.com, even close friends were left to draw their own conclusions about the boy who had his father’s famous ocean-blue eyes but rarely made eye contact with outsiders. He often smiled but was never heard speaking, and was very active but needed round-the-clock supervision wherever he went.
"John and Kelly never discussed his physical condition with me," says their friend, actress Anne Archer, to People magazine. "I observed that he was significantly mentally handicapped. . . . John always communicated to him as if Jett could completely understand him. . . . It was a kind of sweet exchange, where he was just happy with anything that Jett offered. Anything."
Autism is frequently accompanied by seizures that experts believe may stem from the same brain abnormalities that cause the developmental disorder. Dr. Michael Kohrman, a University of Chicago pediatric neurologist, said to AP News that up to one-third of children with autism have some sort of seizure disorder. Still, there are dozens of other causes of seizures. Recurrent seizures are sometimes called epilepsy and are caused by abnormal electrical activity in the brain. These affect more than 3 million Americans. Mild seizures can be barely noticeable while severe ones can cause convulsing and loss of consciousness.
In the same AP News article, Dr. Bruce Cohen, a staff neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic, said, "Sudden death in epilepsy is not an unheard-of phenomenon." It can happen with seizures lasting more than 15 or 20 minutes, typically when medicine stops working or if patients quit taking medicine, Cohen said. One way death occurs in these cases is respiratory muscles weaken from prolonged convulsions and the patient stops breathing, he explained. More rarely, he said, about one in 1,000 epileptics die each year from a sudden unexplained death that typically occurs with no sign of a seizure. Whether this happened to Jett Travolta or whether autopsy officials in the Bahamas know of this is uncertain. "We're dealing with a massive lack of information," Cohen told AP News.
Michael Ossi, an attorney for the Travoltas, and Samantha Mast, a Travolta publicist, told the AP by e-mail that they would not discuss details of the boy's illness. Jett Travolta's body was cremated, and the official autopsy report has not been released.
Travolta and Preston are followers of Scientology, the controversial religion created by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. But the Church of Scientology is not commenting specifically on the Travolta case. Church policy is for members to seek a doctor for medical treatment of a physical condition, including taking any drugs prescribed. "The bottom line is that Scientologists seek conventional medical treatment for medical conditions," said Tommy Davis, a spokesman for the Church of Scientology International in Los Angeles, to AP News.
John Travolta has said his son was successfully treated when he was 2 for a rare disease called Kawasaki syndrome, which can cause inflamed blood vessels in young children and can lead to heart disease and related problems. Medical specialists who did not treat the teen told the Associated Press on Tuesday that while Kawasaki syndrome is poorly understood, it's quite unlikely the disease had anything to do with the teen's death.
Kawasaki syndrome, the disease the family has said made Jett sick when he was a toddler, can cause inflammation in blood vessels and arteries. It typically features a persistent high fever accompanied by symptoms that can include bloodshot eyes; swelling in hands, feet and neck lymph nodes; a red rash on the arms and legs; and cracked, swollen lips.
Most cases occur in the first five years of life, and if treated immediately with aspirin and intravenous gamma globulin, children are essentially cured, said Dr. Cody Meissner, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, to AP News. While inflammation can sometimes lead to burst arteries or heart damage, Meissner said most children don’t have any complications, but those who do would develop them soon after diagnosis — not several years later.
"If 10 years or more had gone by, it would be very unlikely that seizure activity could be attributed to Kawasaki disease," Meissner said.
Kelly Preston blamed household cleaners and fertilizers for the disease and said a detoxification program based on Scientology teachings helped improve his health, according to People magazine. Meissner said there is scientific evidence linking professional-strength carpet cleaners with the disease.
According to the same AP News article, Davis, the Scientology spokesman, acknowledged the detoxification program, but said its benefits are spiritual. "Scientology is a religion," he said. "We deal with the spirit, and mental and spiritual factors that affect someone's happiness and well-being."
According to People.com, a memorial service is planned for Thursday in the family's hometown of Ocala, Fla.
Talk to other readers about this story.
|
|
|
|
|
