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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCreigh Deeds Stabbed, Son Dead...
WASHINGTON -- Virginia state senator and 2009 gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds was stabbed at his home in the Millboro community of Bath County, Va., early Tuesday. His 24-year-old son, Gus, is dead from a gunshot wound.
Corrine Geller, a spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, said that Sen. Deeds had been stabbed multiple times in the head and upper torso. After the stabbing, Geller said, Deeds left the scene and walked down the hill to Route 42. He was picked up by a cousin who happened to be driving by. The two drove to the cousin's home, where a 911 call was placed. The cousin has not been identified by police.
Geller said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon that investigators are leaning toward viewing the incident as an attempted murder and suicide, but stressed that the investigation is ongoing.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch and WRIC originally reported that Deeds was in critical condition at University of Virginia Medical Center after the incident. According to a UVA Medical Center spokeswoman, Deeds' condition has since been upgraded to fair.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/creigh-deeds-stabbed_n_4302273.html
Heather MC
(8,084 posts)but some assholes got together and cut funding for mental health facilities, so bad that not even a rich boy could buy a bed in a mental ward in VA.
Nothing to see here folks
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)Kaleva
(36,342 posts)"Geller, speaking to reporters at noon, said that Deeds' son was found in the home suffering from life-threatening injuries related to a gunshot wound. He died at the scene.
She noted then that police were not looking for any suspects and that the incident happened before the 911 call. "
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/creigh-deeds-stabbed_n_4302273.html
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)only thing that made any sense was that there was a real mental event for this young man, he needed to be in a hospital for treatment...the day before. Due to the lack of psychiatric beds in the state, his release was likely accompanied by prescriptions for anti-psychotic meds, especially if he was felt to be a danger to anyone.
I then read about his ability as a musician and academic ability, so he was highly intelligent and emotionally caring and sensitive..His Facebook quote proved that. Yet sadly, that is a combination/brain system that often does not do well with anti-psychotics. (They say that ADHD or Autism is a different structuring of the brain...like Channel A and Channel B...usually high intelligence)
Family tumult, seen as betrayals for a young person...such as divorce and remarriages, new partners and the resulting communication challenges, sometimes create a severe emotional untethering that the family is hesitant, if not, demanding not be discussed. Usually because of conflicting and confusing events and results, and certainly not absent guilt and regret.
Depending on the danger of the situation, a cocktail of them may be prescribed to basically numb the system/render it unable to hurt anyone physically. Often, however, it actually creates or enables a violent ... to themselves or other ... psychotic break. The exceptionally long list of possible side effects is mind-boggling, and all involved just hope against hope that it's the other list...the one that lists the benefits...that is the result. There is an unimaginable horror in making those decisions...and not knowing because it is someone else's brain...so we hope and pray.
There is not an ounce of judgment for any of the above issues...just sorrow for this family and that it happens way more often than most people know. Often prison becomes the final destination if death does not intervene.
I have a son Gus Deeds age. His father and I understand the grief and heartache and every word written above. Our son is doing as well as possible, yet what might have been an amazing and talented life, is doing well to live day to day on his own. I can imagine what the family is going through to some extent.
I have deep and abiding blame for Ronald Reagan. He began the assault on the mental health community and abrogated our political, thus financial responsibility as a civilized society. That responsibility is to serve and help heal, and move forward with research and development and facilities...to make progress, as we have in the physical health profession.
He lowered the bar, yea pretty much removed it, which pretty much ended the progress of research and treatment, thus choices of individuals, families and the professionals who strive to help. Of course, the pharmaceuticals have done well, during this time and will, again, escape any scrutiny...but I can't even fault them because it's all we have.
I have written this post hoping that it might help at least one person or family. Please avoid assigning blame or judgments or anything but support, because sometimes that's part of the problem. There are no good guys/girls or bad guys/girls. Just a broken system that I pray will at least get some attention as a result of the upcoming elections.
How about trading just one new prison for a mental health facility. It's a political issue. And because it's a human issue, as usual, it falls pretty much to the Democrats.
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)I don't know who the survivors may be, but my heart goes out to them, and to you for posting your sympathetic post reaching out for understanding...
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)But I hope it wasn't interpreted to inferring a Democratic family/politician. I intended it as a human issue that Reagan, the Republican jettisoned, but will, as usual, fall to Democrats as a party to hopefully pick up and move it forward.
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)This knows no boundaries, religtions, politics, genders, ages, etc., it's stuff that happens.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)seabeyond
(110,159 posts)libdem4life
(13,877 posts)seabeyond
(110,159 posts)in that we receive so much from it.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)More families than people know are going and have gone through what you are describing including the description of the 'cocktail' of drugs given to those who are unable to get the treatment they need hoping against hope, due to the list of negative side effects, that they will work. And so often tragically, they don't.
Reagan deserves all the condemnation that can be heaped on him for his cruel policies regarding the mentally ill, among so many other things, AIDS to mention another.
And I too cannot imagine the grief of the family and yes, there should be no judgement by anyone outside the family, but I'm sure there will be.
I hope the father recovers physically. Emotionally, hopefully some day he can.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)in a position to have an effect. Like Elizabeth Warren with the financiers...Mark Klaas/Polly Klaas with child abductions comes immediately to mind. Both have had laws changed or new laws written. Her body was found 5 miles from our home. Mark was amazing.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)similar heartbreaks due to our lack of mental health care now. Thank you for sharing.