Jett Travolta: Victim of Autism, Kawasaki, or Scientology?

There's no point arguing how Scientology killed Jett. All religions do. And the only readily observable difference between a 'religion' and 'cult' is time and mainstream popularity. If you're ready to give up all your parental rights to the government, so be it, but I would prefer to have at least a say in conjunction with specialist opinion.

Autism has the same characteristics of mercury poisoning (which are in vaccinations).  I wonder if the Travolta's children were vaccinated and like many children 'over-vaccinated'.  I also wonder how nutritionally deficient Jett was.

As far as the Travolta's not seeking help for Jett's autistic characteristics being child abuse is ABSURD... 

I'm very sad to the death of John's son. I  dont know the truth but if he had autism and seizures and family didnt treat it because of their belief, thats really sad that a belief can decide wether you seek a medical help to your loved one or not.

I was not aware of all the controversy surrounding the Travolta's son and Autism.  When I first saw the clip of them leaving the hotel I wondered who the young man was.  I wondered if he was a body guard because he had a kind of nervous look on his face.  Then I noticed that when he got in the van he did not slide over; he was going to sit right where he wanted to.  I have a 27-year old daughter who has Asperger's (high functioning Autism).  She was diagnosed at 19.  Before her diagnoses I would try and change her some to fit in with her peers...like not to wear a hat to youth group, etc.  She has a place in the car that is hers...in the back seat no matter what.  I feel sometimes we must look odd with the dog in the front seat and my daughter in the back seat.  She is doing well because of ACCEPTANCE.  When I got the understanding of her I changed...she did not.  She was awarded the Red Cross Champions Humanitarian award this year for saving a young boy's life at a pool, she plays guitar and has 2 part time jobs, and attends an autism class at a university.  She does not know how to lie, does not understand sarcasm and she sees everyone as beautiful.  She is an asset to society because of and in spite of being on the Autism spectrum.  I am just thankful I was given the gift of understanding of her and that I accepted it.  I am sorry to hear that Scientology does not recognize this and therefore may cause parents who believe in Scientology not accept their children for who they are.   

We are all human with whom all possess the basics of judgement, integrity, and compassion along with fairness.  I hope these are all words we could abide by. None of us has the right to condemn another blindly. Words said with no validation are worthless.

And my thoughts and prayers go out to the Travolta family. I cannot imagine such a loss. You could see the love they all have for each other, and the love and protection John and Kelly would always convey.

Heavenly Father gave us all the right to pick our own faith to worship how we wish. There was only one perfect being who walked this earth and he has left a wonderful legacy behind. We are all here trying to get things right and to take that with us as we all leave this human body behind and move on.  Just know we are only here a short time when you think of eternity.  I don't know what will happen from here but do believe with such a loving and forgiving Lord to believe in I will be safest in his arms. 

i love and respect both kelly and john.  however, my daughter had kawasaki's disease and recovered after her immunoglobulin transfusion to be a normal child.  my nephew however, is autistic and displays the same symptoms that jett had.  i feel for them for the loss of thier child.  as for religion, they are entitled and free to chose what they want and the same goes for the medical treatment of themselves and thier children.

John and Kelly can seek the comfort of R. Hubbard. And if what the great H is true, Jett is now happily floating in space or wherever these weirdo's call heaven.

I'm sorry for the death, but John and Kelly need to know where their "truth" leads them

I'm seeing a picture develop: a loving family who tried to care for their son, but were prevented from doing so by a false and dangerous belief system. Check out xenu.net for info on this so-called "religion". It's all sci-fi stuff that L. Ron made up; he practically admitted it. I hope this opens up some truths about Scientology and discourages people from joining, and causes many more to leave.

BODY THETAN POISONING - I have been wondering what they did to Tom Cruise to make him act so weird.  If you are rich enough like Cruise to buy your own sonogram machine or like Travolta dress up like a Sky Captain and fly a DC-8 spaceship for fun - I guess you can afford the 'Treatments' that turn you into a 6th level Thetan Bogeyman  but; I think I'd rather be rational instead.

Our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Jett Travolta.. the death shouldn't be blamed to anyone because definitely, they never wanted such thing to happen. Let us just pray for the soul of Jett that he may rest in peace..

There are alot of questions regarding Jett, and not many answers right now, but they'll come about.....they usually do.....most importantly...if he had a history of seizures, no matter what the cause, why was he allowed to be in the bathroom ( the nanny should have been waiting outside the door) for any length of time? I dealt with my dog Shadows epilepsy for 10 years, and missed work (we're blue-collar working class) , lost tons of sleep, etc... to insure he wouldn't kill himself during a seizure. No one knows the facts yet....maybe the nanny was right there the whole time.......but a seizure can strike at any moment, so he should have been watched non-stop, every moment of the day........difficult but mandatory. My heart goes out to the whole family...............TMF

I want to think in my heart Jett is in a good place.. safe now and happy.  To John and Kelly  I hope

What a tragedy for such a young man. I feel horrible for his parents and send my sympathy...

But if this religion does not recognize certain illnesses that is sick, and some one from family serives should have taken a firm hand in this boys situation before it was to late. How sad, why would parents not want to do what is best for there child??? I just don't understand this, if I had a sick child and my church said he didn't need medical treatment I would run fast...change religions..I mean for Gods sake.. nothing in this world would keep me from helping my child.

Maybe the parents were just in denial about his condition.  I have seen it many times in my area of work. 

As the mother of a teenage  boy with autism, and a health care provider I too found myself staring at the video of the child being led by the hand, scratching the top of his head with one finger in a nontradional hand position. There was also a moment when he placed his fingers of his left hand in front of his eyes and shook them briefly, as in a steriotypy fashion. There appears to be information here that strongly suggests autism to be considered.

Patients are still being misdiagnosed, and mismanaged, even with parents of financial means. There are still many children who are teenagers witout the proper diagnosis. Now with the help of the CDC and the American Pediatric Association, more strategies for early intervention and proper training will be more widespread and become the standard of practice.

However, the role of denial in a parent is very strong, nomatter what the religion. Finding out that your child is not normal and will lead a much different life than you expected can do many things. Discovering that very powerful medications will be needed for the duration, with staggering side effects, effects all parents of all religions. What is a parent to do when a coctail of medications with varrying toxicity, being used off label, are the choices? This denial is so strong that it feeds the other side effect of autism...frustration, fatigue and frequently divorce.

I am sad for the family, and many others like them whose daily struggles in the world of special needs and long term disability is uncertain, as even the medical providers disagree as to the best course of care.

I find it simply amazing that when a tragedy happens, you get all these people with all their opinions, some sound so intelligent, and some so dumb, but the bottom line is this. No ONE knows the whole story but the parents of a wonderful child who is now gone! Why does it matter what disease he had, or how they handled it, or what they called it, or what their beleifs are?

Look at the big picture here! Jett has passed away, and John and Kelly are in pain, and are greiving the loss of their child!! They have every resource known to man to help their children, and I know within my heart that this young man was loved and cared for in every way that was possible. How dare any of you even imply something different. I have had a sick child, he had acute myelocytic leukemia, I had NO Money and we lost all we had, our credit went to hell, but I made sure he had everything he wanted and needed. If I could have afforded a nanny, he would have had that too, for whenever I needed to rest.

I am not going to or try to make this about me, I merely want to say, offer your condolences, say your prayers, cry, grieve the loss of this child, but stop with your opinions of what John & kelly's religios beliefs are, or what disease he had, the fact remains is their child is gone and all they have left is their precious memories, please let them have that, and I hope and pray they NEVER see this blog, with all these idiotic opinions.

Jett, you were loved, and you are gone, but you will never be forgotten. Rest in peace baby!

If John & kelly were to see this: I would say to them; I have never lost a child, I came closer than I would have liked many times, and I have a daughter who is 16, and I trully feel your pain and i hope you find some comfort in knowing that Jett is no longer suffering, and hold on to your precious memories.

After working in the medical field for many years, I know of scientologists who stopped taking their medication and got much worse. That cult hurts more people than most know.

I thought that there was something going on with their son the first time I saw a picture of him as a young boy.  Since then, if you think about it, you don't remember seeing many pics of him at all.  It's like he went from the age of 4 to 16 without anyone speaking about him, pictures, etc.  It's very weird that a 16 yr old would require a nanny if he only had a seizure disorder which can be controlled with the proper medicines.  Unless some other condition was ocurring...  If it is found that he indeed died from conditions relating to untreated disease...neglect on his parents should be investigated due to their beliefs which they are very open about.

Jett was loved. The family was / is in possible tragic denial. Scientology needs to update its classification of autism to what it actually is, a neurological difference in need of direct care (not a "mental illness" to be denied). And, we need to allow this family to heal from this loss without our judgments at this time. Peace and good / kind thoughts are needed for all families who have lost their children - no matter the circumstances or disagreements that surround the loss.  Let us focus on what can be done for other families in the way of support - please encourage your state's lawmakers to increase insurance and support service availability to individuals living with autism / ASD / PDD. Currently, even a large majority of active duty service personnel with children living with autism, ARE NOT covered for autism under their military insurance. My son was dropped from his insurance within 30 days of his diagnosis (7 years ago) and they still claim that the decision is "pending" with no explanation to back it up. It is a common situation for those of us in the autistic community. So, focus on fighting for the autistic kiddos who are still with us - fight with and for us - and let Jett go in peace while his parents and sister mourn his loss.

Thank you - Proud Mom of a Fabulously Autistic Kiddo and his Equally Fabulous Neurotypical Sister (unsung hero).

I don't know anything about Scientology, or the Travoltas.  But I do know that autism doesn't kill (I have Asperger's, a form of autism.)  It's sad if Jett wasn't being treated for this developmental disability (not a mental illness, as implied in this article), but it wouldn't have killed him.  Autism doesn't cause physical symptoms, and only the most extremely low-functioning autistics are unsafe alone.

A seizure in the shower could've killed him though.  My boyfriend had one and smacked his head really hard on the bathtub.  Thankfully, it didn't cause major head trauma, which is probably what happened to Jett.

Lastly, they don't really know what triggers autism, but there seems to be a link to other health traumas, like vaccination and prenatal viral infection.  So something like Kawasaki's could possibly trigger it.

In 1997 my Son, Kahlil, had Kawasaki and it was a nightmare, nobody believed he was ill.  Because of my diligent documentation of his symptoms and treatment by me an out of town Doctor caught my determination of treatment.  To this day he displays total health, however, is over confident and cannot get enough competition towards his benefit.  Has low empathy and compassion towards others, displays it only to his closest friends and family. Is this alright?

If this boy was prone to seizures, why on earth was he alone in the shower? Would any parent with a child prone to seizures leave them alone in a bathroom? I dont expect his parents to be with him 24/7 as they obvioulsy have the means to have staff on hand to look after Jett. If they had staff looking after him, where were they? If they were not doing their duty and watching the boy, these professional carers should be prosecuted for negligence.   

If the Travolta's are guilty of not doing enough for their might be autistic son, then will we arrest the majority of parents who can't afford the therapies and schools and other related expenses that health insurance won't cover? There are what, two states out of fifty that mandate insurers pay for autism treatment. Are those parents guilty of not doing enough for their kids?

I don't know what happened to this child or what his parents did or didn't do for him. The point is that the United States does next to nothing for mental counseling or other long term therapies for families. The family has the right not to be a poster family for autism. I'm not a supporter of any religion but would we be this caustic if the family were Amish? Mormon? The freedom of religion (as stupid as I think it is) should be applied to all groups and not just main stream Christians. And yes, I think Scientologists AND Christians are whacky.

I seriously doubt that the Travolta's ignored their son by leaving him in front of video games and deprived him of nutritious foods that they themselves ate.  It is very obvious that they loved him very much and were not in the slightest "embarrassed" by him.  So this "neighbor" is completely full of it.  I agree that Scientology is ridiculous and may (hopefully not) have been a factor in his death - if they indeed refused to put him on anti seizure medicine - but there's no doubt that they loved that child with all of their hearts.  Nothing they did was out of intentional neglect but maybe rather, a belief in a dangerous, cult religion (if that indeed turns out to be the case).  The application of those religious practices on children should be outlawed. 

Ok, if anyone will even read 9 pages to see this post, this is so interesting to me that I did read them all, followed links and tried to bone up. I don't want to speak as if I'm jumping to conclusions or passing judgment but-

Some things I thought about:

(1)- Obviously they don't have to be out and advocates for the type of disability Jett had but since they admit one problem, why not admit the other? (I mean, they acknowledge baby monitors....) Unless it is because unacceptable to them...  If unacceptable, then probably he didn't get needed treatment. I'm about to paste an excerpt here from today's Associated Press article:

~Michael McDermott, an attorney for the actor, said Sunday that although Jett was last seen Thursday and found the following day, he doesn't believe that the teen was in the bathroom for a substantial amount of time.

"The police left the impression that the boy was unsupervised. No. There were two nannies with him for the entire evening," McDermott told The Associated Press. "They made it seem like he was sent to the condo and nobody checked in on him until the next morning."

"(Jett) was spectacularly supervised," said McDermott, who said he has not had the chance to talk to the two nannies himself.

McDermott said he had no knowledge of Jett's medical history but "understood he had a history of seizures." It is unclear whether Jett was taking medication for that.~

Okay, this is the lawyer for the Travolta's. Like HE knows nothing... He states he has no knowledge of Jett's medical history.  ??  What? Get real. He says "history of seizures" but since this would be the obvious time to state "and was being treated to prevent..", doesn't the omission speak volumes? Says he hasn't yet spoken to the nannies. Bull. Bull. Bull.

(2)- If this 16 yr old w/2 nannies (who has to be seat-buckled by someone else) that night said at 6:00pm he was tired, shouldn't that have red-flagged caretakers to pay closer attention than usual? And if he had baby monitor and one nanny was supposedly on the other side of the door, why did caregiver(s) not hear the possible seizure noises or at least the crash? With regards to his death, except for the possibility that he wasn't on seizure preventatives because they are also prescribed for personality disorders, wouldn't the nannies have primary responsibilities here? The lawyer (not me or another poster) says he was last seen Thurs night and found Fri morning. I'm sure if you or I (or since there were two, if you AND  I) had been on the clock, this is not how it would have been.

(3)- Kelly has a son from previous marriage that she didn't raise and is NEVER acknowledged. Is this not a red-flag to more than me and one other poster? Wouldn't those records of FL courts be public and "researchable" with regard to his disabilties (grown, with diapers) and why she had to be sued (by her family!) over his care? Also, since she doesn't acknowledge Jett's autism or her first son's EXISTENCE, isn't it safe for us to jump to the conclusion that Jett wasn't given what he needed in regard to his disability?

(4)- People are saying lack of treatment is neglect- I agree, but I'm thinking there may have been abuse as well. Bear with me here.  I KNOW they are loving and good people, this is not what I mean. But, since people with autism have sensory issues and things are intensified for them, wouldn't the scientology's "treatment" of sauna purifications (and who knows what else he went thru) be excruciating torture for him?

I love John Travolta. Always have. The only flaw I ever saw in him was his involvement in  such a dumbass belief system. (C'mon followers, wake up!!)  I'm DEEPLY saddened for the family. But- it seems there is plenty of "ammunition" for us, as parents, to "shoot" our mouths off about.

Sorry this was so long.