I-Team: 8-Year-Old's Hospital Stay Highlights State's Challenges In Autism Care
WEYMOUTH (CBS) - An 8-year-old child spent four weeks at South Shore Hospital, but he wasn't sick. Tyler is autistic and there was nowhere else for him to go.
The I-Team found his case is not unusual. Vulnerable children in Massachusetts wind up being "medically boarded" simply because there is not a bed available to meet their psychiatric or behavioral needs. For autistic children like Tyler, the problem can be even more extreme.
Tyler's mother, Melissa Andrade, shared her story with WBZ-TV.
"He just started hurting himself and screaming and attacking me and himself," she recalled. "I just was very desperate at that time for help."
She called 911 for help because she could not calm him down or stop him from harming himself.
"He's a big kid for his age and very strong so I just couldn't keep him safe," she said.
Tyler was taken to the pediatric emergency room at South Shore Hospital. Andrade thought it would be a short stay.
However, four weeks later, the I-Team visited Tyler and Adrade in his hospital room. It was stripped down so he could not create a hazard for himself. There was a security guard outside the door. Tyler, who is non-verbal, could not leave. He could not go to school or go outside.
The problem was that there was nowhere for Tyler to go. There is no hospital in Massachusetts with a dedicated program to treat autistic children in crisis. Hospital staff could only identify two options for Tyler, one in Rhode Island, the other Hampstead Hospital in New Hampshire. Both were full.
"We think of Massachusetts as having the best health care in the country. Can you believe there's not a place for Tyler?" we asked.
"No I was shocked. I was shocked to find out there is no help for Tyler," she replied.
The doctors and nurses at South Shore did what they could for Tyler. But they do not specialize in cognitive disorders and have little experience working with autism.
"I know they're trying the best they can too but for any 8-year-old to be trapped in a room all day long is not good either," Andrade said.
"It's something none of us would want for our child and it's something we struggle with as an emergency department," said Dr. Jason Tracy the Chair of the Emergency Department at South Shore Hospital.
You might think Tyler's case is an outlier. But, according to Tracy, at any given time, more than half of the 10 pediatric beds in the ER at South Shore can be occupied by children in need of psychiatric or behavioral health placement. It is not rare that it may take weeks to find a place.
Tracy says it is a strain on both hospital staff and on families.
There are 250 beds for child and adolescent psychiatric and behavioral patients in Massachusetts. That is 60 fewer than in 2008. They are often full. It's the unintended consequence of a positive program to keep more children in the home and community.
Since autism is a cognitive disorder, it is not always easy to place a child who needs inpatient care.
"It's a well known issue. It's been a problem for several years now. We just need to have the will to solve it," says David Matteodo who represents 44 psychiatric and behavioral health hospitals in Massachusetts.
Matteodo says because there is no dedicated place for them, autistic children often fall through the cracks.
"It's usually a very difficult match and that's why probably in Massachusetts we need a designated unit."
Right now there is no dedicated unit and no immediate plans to create one. A task force of state officials, hospitals and advocates are working for better care and solutions for autism.
Andrade says something needs to change. No child should go through what Tyler did. "My heart breaks for him every day. It's a really hard thing to see him go through."
Tyler did eventually leave South Shore Hospital, four weeks to the day after he was admitted. The day after the I-Team met Tyler and began making calls, Tyler was finally transferred to Hampstead Hospital in New Hampshire for evaluation, a facility with a dedicated in patient autism program.
Hampstead is more than an hour and a half from Tyler's mother and his siblings. Andrade says if it helps her son, it will be worth it.
Lauren Leamanczyk can be reached at llleamanczyk@cbs.com or on Twitter @LaurenWBZ.
