Mum’s plea for help as autistic son smashes up their home

HSE slammed after family ‘abandoned’ over outbursts

My son needs to be taken immediately to somewhere where he can be safe ADRIENNE MURPHY VIDEO POSTED ONLINE TEARFUL Mum makes emotional online appeal

THE distraught mother of a severely autistic boy who has violent outbursts broke down yesterday, pleading: “I cannot live another day with my son”. Adrienne Murphy said the 14-year-old’s psychotic episodes have forced her to call 999 eight times in less than two years. In a desperate cry for help, the Dublin mum of two blasted the HSE for preventing him from getting the care he needs. There is a space available at a suitable residential unit but Adrienne’s son cannot get in even though funding for him has been given the green light. In an emotional video posted online, the mum said her boy “was smashing up the house” in one of his terrifying outbursts. She added: “He was completely naked and insane. I feel totally abandoned. Nobody cares if we live or die.” Adrienne said the teen, who is non-verbal, was handcuffed and taken to hospital with a towel over his head. But she added even when he was heavily sedated on the paediatric ward, he had two further dangerous episodes. Adrienne said: “He had to have horrific physical restraints by multiple security guards.” She added her son was discharged after a week and she was left on her own to cope. Photographs taken in June show a black eye her son suffered after smashing his head off a wall in frustration. Adrienne fitted padding across his bedroom door and Perspex across his window to stop him escaping. Her concern is that he would get knives and smash glasses in the kitchen while she and her other son are sleeping. Adrienne said the teen is incontinent at night and also unable to use the commode in his room. The mum said her hopes of getting him the help he needs were cruelly dashed last week when she got an email from the HSE saying he needed further observation before he could move into emergency care. Adrienne, from Rialto, South Dublin, went to Crumlin Children’s Hospital yesterday morning and said she won’t leave until her son is admitted into a suitable unit. She is begging Health Minister Simon Harris to step in and help her family. Adrienne added: “He needs to be taken immediately to somewhere where he can be safe.” A HSE spokesman said it was aware of the case and “will continue to work with the family in relation to home support and other care options”.