As Dr. Jay Fisher enters Patient Room 12, a 14-year-old boy with curly, brown hair smiles sheepishly from the bed. Dressed in a green hospital gown, he’s quiet — calm even.
Gabe is a ninth-grader, big brother, budding chef, Tom Petty fan, avid science-fiction reader and Dungeon & Dragons player. More than five hours earlier, an ambulance brought him to the Children’s Hospital of Nevada at University Medical Center.
The reason: His mother, Jaleadeanne Robison, caught him browsing inappropriate images on the computer, which triggered his explosive outburst this August afternoon. He stormed up the stairs in the family’s North Las Vegas home, pushed his mother into a door frame and then ran downstairs and out the front door.
Fearing for her son’s safety, Robison called the police. This wasn’t the first time.
“I have neighbors who think mental health is contagious,” Robison tells Fisher, who heads the pediatric emergency department at the county-run hospital.
She’s sitting in a chair in the almost-barren hospital room, designated for children experiencing psychiatric crises. There are no cords or sharp objects they could use to hurt themselves. A closed-circuit camera monitors the room.
It’s all too familiar to Robison, whose son has been battling emotional and behavioral problems for almost a decade. Just 10 days earlier, he was released from long-term treatment in Texas, where he wound up after medical providers suggested it. The family had exhausted its local options.
“There’s no services,” she says. “There’s nothing in Nevada.”
[For more of this story, written by Jackie Valley, go to http://lasvegassun.com/news/20...ency-room-visits-ar/]
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