Autism Salutes Dr. Kenneth P. Stoller, and The Hyperbaric Medical Center of New Mexico!
I received an email today penned by Dr. Kenneth P. Stoller, and I honestly just sat and cried after I read it, because I was so overwhelmed by the compassionate and generous heart of Dr. Stoller !
"To: Heros with Handicaps
re providing hyperabric oxygen to children of active duty military personal for the purpose of treating their "autism" or cerebral palsy.
The Hyperbaric Medical Ctr of New Mexico will treat any child of an active duty military member that is referred by Heros with Handicaps at our cost.
KP Stoller, MD President, International Hyperbaric Medical Assoc Medical Director, Hyperbaric Medical Center of New Mexico www.hbotnm.com "
Please visit Heroes With Handicaps. You can print out the application - it's over on the left under the archive. Fill it out, and send it in.
Please visit The Hyperbaric Medical Center of New Mexico! FYI... I called the Marriot that The Hyperbaric Medical Center of New Mexico partners with, and checked out their rates. The Marriot offers a serious military discount! Oh yeh, and the wonderful woman that I talked to told me that her nephew has autism and he is doing remarkably well. His parents did the diet, and you guessed it... HBOT!
There is one thing I will never tire of, and that is saluting the Hero's and Angel's in the autism community!
Heroes With Handicaps, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded with the purpose of providing financial assistance to active duty, and retired military members who have a child(ren) with autism.
"Our slogan is “Heroes NOW!” because these children need treatment and services NOW, not when a cure is found." Laurilee Etterbeek, President, Heroes With Handicaps, Inc.
Is it a sad day indeed when the men and women of our all volunteer armed forces have to rely on the generousity of non-profits like Heroes With Handicaps, Inc. to fund medically prescribed treatment for our children with autism. The failures of TRICARE Management Activity and the Department of Defense, to provide the medically necessary treatment our children with autism require, never cease to amaze me.
Autism Salutes "Heroes With Handicaps, Inc." for their dedication to helping our military dependent children with autism!!! We are profoundly grateful to you, and your mission to help our children with autism recover and "be all they can be"!
Please visit HEROES WITH HANDICAPS. If you need financial assistance to cover the cost of your child's treatment, you may request an application via the "Contact" page, or print the application right from Autism Salutes. The Heroes With Handicaps application is over on the left just below the archives.
Friday, July 15, 2008 was like any other morning. I got up, turned on my pc, fixed my coffee, and sat down to check out what was happening in the world. My typical morning of checking my email and catching up on the news while rubbing the sleep out of my eyes was quickly transformed. I checked my email to find an article sent to me by a fellow Air Force spouse on the east coast. As I read the article, I found myself instantly wide awake and shaking from head to toe with complete disbelief and outrage! It really takes the extreme to anger me to the point that I am shaking from head to toe. This was not just any article.
Friday, July 15, 2008 brought confirmation of the truth to not only myself, but God knows how many other Air Force families around the world who have children with autism or any other disability for that matter, who have been unable to access Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) funds for respite as the Marine Corps, and Army have been able to. The article, investigated and written by R. Jeffery Smith, ran in the print and online versions of The Washington Post. You can read the article HERE.
I am an Air Force spouse. I am proud of my husband’s service to our great nation, and I am proud to support my husband in his service to our nation. Were it not for the fact that our family personally has experienced a failure of leadership at many different levels during the course of his service; I would most likely just be upset at the obvious abuse of power, and the misuse of taxpayer monies. But that is not the case.
My husband and I have four children. Two of our children have autism. From day one of his service, I (and at times both of us) have been yelled at, cursed at, intimidated, threatened, and advised to put our younger son in foster care, when we have sought answers to questions, sought help, or sought advice in challenging the status quo in an effort to help our children. The last time these things happened to us, was exactly that, the last time. It was either put up or shut up and I chose to do neither. What started as an effort to help my own children rapidly transformed into an effort to help all children. In my naivety, I thought we were the only family this was happening to. How wrong I was, as it is estimated that across all branches of services, 1 in every 10 families has a child with a disability.
My fellow Air Force spouse and friend on the east coast who sent me the article is one of many friends I have made on my journey of advocating for children with autism. The Air Force may be the first responders to a terrorist threat or attack in the air, but their actions on the ground in their seemingly willful and complete lack of response, services, and support for Air Force families with special needs children, in the midst of the “attack” of the autism epidemic, is absolutely shameful.
So the Air Force top brass believes it is appropriate use of taxpayer dollars to allocate 16.2 million dollars to build cushy seats for their top brass asses to sit in? While our families go without much needed services and support? If this is their line of thinking and reasoning, I guess the Air Force doesn’t really mean it when they say “family first”. And I guess they don’t mean nor adhere to their OWN core values either. Integrity First. Service Before Self. Excellence In All We Do. Unless they mean that the officers and enlisted below them are to adhere to the Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence In All We Do. Our family and that of many others I personally know, have certainly not experienced those qualities from their own leadership. When one looks to simple management principle’s that outline something to the effect of; the office is only as good as the manager, it all makes sense.
So I surmise from what is being experienced by Air Force families who have children with autism; the top brass seem to have little to no integrity. Their own ass – I mean Self - comes before Service (remember cushy seats). Their Excellence In All We Do means, leather color and seat belt color changes to those cushy seats, it means those seats must swivel at the perfect longitudinal direction, and on and on, etc. Yes, Excellence In All We Do for the top brass ass, to the tune of 16.2 million GWOT taxpayer dollars.
Maybe if we all lived in the air, the response would be adequate???
Danielle Brian, Executive Director, of the Washington non-profit group Project on Government Oversight (POGO), stated in a letter to Secretary Gates that this Air Force program “is a gross misuse of millions of taxpayer dollars…” and an “egregious failure of leadership”.
While I believe this might be appropriate language to address the issue with Secretary Gates; it is weak given the reality of the sacrifice our families make, and what our families with special needs children endure. I’ve done the calculations, and that wasted 16.2 million dollars would have gone to unimaginable lengths to help our Air Force families with services, support, and respite care.
The Marine Corps and Army, upon hearing the failures of the Extended Care Health Option (ECHO) program failures to provide respite as “promised”, took immediate action to meet the needs of their families with children with autism. The Navy is on board and will do so as well at the beginning of fiscal year 2009. (You can read more about the failures of TRICARE, ECHO, and the DEMO project here on my site.)
My friend was telling me recently there was a study done some years ago which looked at leadership across the different branches of services. The results do not surprise me. One of the situations looked at in the study was that of chow hall “etiquette”. In other branches of service, the officers made sure their men all ate before they did. Not the Air Force. While I was talking to my friend I commented that when you break it down and put it in parenting terms; any good parent is going to make sure their children eat before they do. It’s parenting instinct, and its leadership instinct. My friend totally agreed.
It is time for our Air Force leadership to “feed” their members and families by way of services and support, including access to respite through GWOT funds. Can we afford NOT to help the families of our first responders in the air who help protect this great nation of ours? I don’t think so.
About the Author: I struggle with finding a balance between writing realistic journalism pieces that may be just a tad *cheeky*, and pieces which are inspiring and stir others to action. I find that when you’re telling the cold hard truth, this is at times a difficult balance to strike. Angela Warner
When Dr. F. Edward Yazbak and Raymond Gallup, co-authors of the report, "When 1 in 150 is Really 1 in 67", heard about the number of military dependent children with autism; they went straight to work. Hop on over to the Vaccine Autoimmune Project and check out their fantastically written article addressing the number of military dependent children with autism.
I think there are a lot of people who have a lot of explaining to do. For years families have been fighting on all fronts to help our children with autism. And a continual deaf ear and blind eye are turned. I think it is incredibly sad that so much of the principal that this country of ours' was founded upon has disappeared. We have become selfish and self serving, and that is the message we are sharing with the world.
Our military members are the best and brightest that our nation has to offer, who have volunteered to put themselves in harms way to protect our country. We are the spouses of our military best and brightest, fighting for our children. We have asked for nothing more than the minimum recommended standard of care and treatment as outlined and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and National Academy of Sciences.
So that leads me to believe that YOU in YOUR ivory towers believe or know one of two things:
1. You believe our children are lost causes.
2. You have something to hide.
It is better to tell the truth, than to spin and manipulate the data. Everyone knows the truth will come out eventually. Well... the truth is coming out. The spin and manipulation stop here! And a lot of "somebody's" have a lot explaining to do!
Children with autism can and do recover.
Thank you again, to everyone at the Vaccine Autoimmune Project for the incredible support for our military dependent children with autism and through this support, support for all children with autism! You're all loved very much!
Heroes With Handicaps is a 501 (c) 3 which provides financial assistance to military families seeking treatment for their child (ren) with autism not covered by Tricare. Please visit Heroes With Handicaps to learn more and to pick up an application if you need assistance.
If you are interested in hosting a fundraiser for Heroes With Handicaps, please contact Angela at autismrr at gmail dot com
Check back soon to learn how you can purchase an Autism Salutes lapel pin. Every single penny generated from the sale of these pins goes directly to Heroes With Handicaps.
Lee Silsby accepts Tricare! Save $20 on your first order. Click, read, and save!
Because I am turning Autism Salutes into somewhat of a personal blog, yet still autism and military related; I feel the need to clarify that our beloved autism organizations linked here have only endorsed the letter to Secretary Gates (the very first post) and that my views and feelings in any other posts do not necessarily reflect those of our autism organizations.
Endorsing Organizations
On behalf of children and families everywhere impacted by autism, I would like to thank from the deepest parts of my soul, the following organizations who have endorsed what I was able to put together "With a Little Help From My Friends". Words could never fully express the gratitude I feel. Ang
