The effects of autism usually include impaired social interaction, difficulty communicating, and unusual or repetative behaviors. But 12-year-old Christopher Marino proves there can be a bright side to autism — one that can save lives.
CNN recently covered the story of how Christopher, who has autism, and his father, Walter, were swept out into the Atlantic Ocean from the beach. Despite the danger, Christopher was not afraid. His autism causes him to lack a fear of death.
While he was comforted by the water, Walter was able to feed off his son’s courage and keep it together. Instead of panicking, they were calm. It enabled them to survive 12 hours in the open sea before they were rescued by fishermen and the Coast Guard.
Check out the article for the full story, it’s amazing!
December 30, 2008 at 12:03 am
What the story didn’t tell you was that Walter has lost Christopher dozens of times because of poor or no supervision and this was another example of him not properly supervising his son. The other thing the stories didn’t say was that after an hour in the water, Christoper was clinging to Walter and Walter pushed him away and let him drift off. They were found over a mile apart. Christopher spent 14 hours adrift alone. What an amazing child and a terrible parent.
February 2, 2010 at 11:27 pm
He did it because if he hadn’t let go, then Chris would have drowned the both of them because he didn’t know what to do. It was for both of their own goods.