A Tale of Autism, Mercury Poisoning and Recovery

On a beautiful Saturday in September, 2011, my husband and I made the  forty-mile trip from our eastern Lancaster County home to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to visit our son, Derek.  Derek was training for an eight month term of voluntary service in Guinea-Bissau, a small country on the west coast of Africa, bordering Senegal.  Part of a team of five, operating under the Eastern Mennonite Missions program called Youth Evangelism Service, he will be involved in projects such as building a school, teaching English and Bible and building relationships.

Watching him walk across the lawn to greet us, I was struck by his health and vitality, by the sparkle in his eyes and the bounce in his step.  It was his twentieth birthday.  We took him to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate.   The afternoon was a wonderful time together, talking, laughing, catching up and listening to him speak with clarity, focus and joy about his mission training and this new chapter in his life.

Our times together were not always so happy.  In fact, five years earlier, this day would have been impossible to envision.  Ours is a story of the incredible pain of watching a child slip away into autism, of a desperate search for answers, of caring teachers, of a committed pastor, of insightful counselors, and of a brilliant and wise medical doctor who brought our son back.

Derek was born on September 24, 1991.  He was a happy, healthy baby and was welcomed into the family by his father, by me and his older brother and sister.  Of course we made sure he received all the recommended vaccines at the recommended times—we wanted him to remain healthy!

It became apparent when he was quite young that he had trouble focusing, but we were not concerned.   We assumed it was just a “boy” thing, something he would eventually outgrow.  When he started school his teachers reported attention deficit problems, but he did well both socially and academically through fifth grade.

Things took a sudden turn when he entered middle school.  He became reclusive, isolating himself in his bedroom immediately upon coming home from school, and emerging only to eat dinner.  There was little to no communication; he simply stopped talking.

Learn more: kindredcommunity