A Family's Desperate Struggle With Autism

April 22, 2004 — -- Marc and Sophia Augier were overjoyed when their dream of a big family quickly became a reality five years ago with the birth of son Marcel and little more than a year later, twin boys Christophe and Henri.

Their lives, in the suburbs of Cleveland, seemed to be a normal and happy blur, as they went about the business of raising three young boys.

So, Marc and Sophia didn't know what to think when, at age 2, Marcel suddenly started behaving strangely. The boy who seemed to be developing normally, who was starting to talk, suddenly stopped talking, stopped responding to his parents.

At times, he would shake his hands in front of his face. Awake in the middle of the night, he wouldn't sleep. Sophia says he was "humming, talking to himself, bouncing off the walls."

Soon Marcel stopped making eye contact. He stopped pointing. He even seemed oblivious to Christmas presents. On a trip to Seaworld, "He wasn't even overwhelmed," she said. "He just floated through the day."

Concerned, they took him to the pediatrician, and then to a neurologist, where Marcel underwent a battery of intensive tests. The result was devastating. Marcel was diagnosed with autism, a complex developmental brain disorder that can leave a child isolated, completely unable to connect to the outside world.

The Augiers were stunned and heartsick. Soon, it got even worse. The odds were astronomical, but the doctor said Christophe and Henri were autistic too. And Sophia was pregnant with her fourth child.

It would not be easy to take care of three disabled sons. The boys couldn't tell their parents when they were hungry, tired or scared. They would be frustrated by their inability to communicate, and threw tantrums constantly.

A fund has been set up to help the Augier children. The Cleveland Clinic, attended by the Augier children, has a Web site: http://www.clevelandclinic.org/childrensrehab/programs/Autism/autism_donating.htm