Take a good look at the beautiful young woman pictured above. Heather Blower was just 18 when she was found hanging in her bedroom by her sister, Heidi.
Earlier today I was alerted to a post that featured Heather and Heidi's mother, Paula.
I was halfway through the post when I had to stop. Tears were welling and I had to dry my eyes. Anger was also rearing its ugly head because the incompetence highlighted in Paula's guest post is all too familiar.
One would have thought that after 11 years of researching and blogging about this I'd be almost immune to the pain and suffering felt by those left behind when they lose children under such tragic circumstances. The tragedy here is heightened because of the ignorance of apparent health care professionals and a spineless regulator who have been alerted to stories like this time and time again and done absolutely nothing!
Heather was dragged through the system, her mind, body and soul tortured by raving lunatics who chose to ignore obvious signs of antidepressant adverse reactions.
Once dead and with her lifeless body barely put to rest, those same health care professionals thought it their duty to target Heather's surviving sister, Heidi. They offered her antidepressants, this was refused. They then, with their infinite knowledge of "we know better than you", recommended that Heidi be moved into an apartment because, they told her mom, “you’re stopping her having antidepressants and getting well.”
The guest post is difficult to read, it will make you sad and, hopefully, make you angry enough to share it far and wide. If you have health care professionals in your family or if you have them as friends then you have a moral and ethical duty to tell them (not ask them) to sit down and actually let this sink in.
Paula has shown courage for speaking out, a courage that comes in the face of adversity. It's time for us all to show courage. It's time for us to say enough is enough.
Losing Heather is featured on the brilliant AntiDepAware website here.
Bob Fiddaman
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