This passed weekend after an emotional trip to the ER with my autistic Toddler I realized how much our health care system is failing those with special needs. 

I am a mom of 4, 3 of those having special needs. My 3 boys are all autistic, my youngest of them also has a global developmental delay. Over this passed weekend my youngest son developed the typical barking cough of croup, something as a mom of 4 I am very familiar with.

We loaded him up and began our trip down to our local ER. I knew he just needed a shot of steroids and he'd be fine. I have dealt with home oxygen and laryngotracheomalacia before, croup is a walk in the park. 

Once we got into triage I did my normal speech about my sons disabilities to let the medical staff know. I was immediately met with attitude from the nurse, which I don't mind I understand how busy an ER is. Due to the volume of people in the er, the noise level and the florescent lights my son began to go into sensory overload. I asked for a quitet safe place for him to wait because when he goes to the "red zone" as we call it he will begin to hurt himself. They told me it was not possible. They told me to go wait in the far corner until he could get a room.

As expected my son got more and more overwhelmed. I asked again and again was told no. At this point my son reached the point of no return where he began to bite himself, pinch himself and pull his hair. At this point my son was a danger to himself and no matter what I did I could not get him to come back to the "green zone." This continued until my son was moved to a room, where he had maybe 5 minutes of peace before he became overwhelmed again. 

It took speaking to over 5 nurses, reexplaing my sons disabilities and how he has started to hurt himself for someone to try and help. The last nurses I spoke to understood the stress my son was going through and tracked down a doctor to examine him and get him the meds so we could return home to his safe place. Thanks to this last nurse my son was quickly seen, treated and we were able to get him home where he felt safe. 

The lack of knowledge of the disability act and care for special needs children was extremely upsetting. It has become apparent that most hospitals do not have training nor policies in place for dealing with children/anyone with disabilities. I have created this petition in hopes to gain community support so we can take action to create safe places in hospitals for those who need them.