An Interesting Letter

Let me tell you, our adventures with our insurance company our never boring. They are full of interesting correspondence- back and forths about Speech Therapy, Face lifts, and OT and whether they are *really* needed.

Yesterday took the cake. In June, my neck was broken by Little Bug. I was taking a bath and he wanted to get in. So, with no intent of harm, he jumped over the side of the bathtub and landed on my upper chest, driving my neck into the edge of the bathtub. The force of this jump caused a small fracture in one of my vertebrae.
I went to the urgent care and received x rays and some pain medication. I went over the cause of the injury several times. It was clearly documented that it was a harmless accident and not a big deal.

Imagine my surprise yesterday when I received a letter from my insurance company stating that they had reviewed my injury and had asked a law group to review my claim to see if “another party involved in the accident should be held responsible for your accident and help pay for your medical costs.” They provided several forms that needed to be filled out in order to avoid “complication with your claims”.

I appreciate in this situation; it was probably a miscommunication on the part of the doctors and insurance company- in that they didn’t communicate as the record of the claim filed reflects that this was an accident in my own home while taking a bath.

I thought of the families with older autistic children who had injured someone- people who are considered adults. There have been several articles surrounding the subject of adults with Autism who have hurt someone. Would an adult child with Autism have been held accountable? When we first meandered onto this path called Autism, I would have thought no, of course not! After reading about people being arrested at the age of seven at school for biting a teacher, held in federal prison for killing their parent, and more examples than I can provide, I know these things are no longer let go.

I have to admit that I am scared for when Little Bug goes to school as he self injures and injures others when he isn’t understood or lacks a way to communicate his needs. The little girl who was arrested- over a tussle about a sweatshirt which ended in her kicking and biting a teacher- was in Washington.

Often times, the reaction to behavior can be extreme- like arresting a 7 year old or seeing if a 3 year old can be legally held responsible for an accident. Another example is found in the video link below- be warned, it is extreme.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/07/10/boudreau.behind.school.walls.cnn?iref=videosearch