Jake's Story

My darling 14yr old son took his own life on the 20th March 2013, I believe it was due to medication he was placed on 8 weeks earlier. I am now going to fight, to find out why he was placed on anti-depressant medication when he had never been diagnosed with depression, only anxiety! Jakes dad & I were never sat down & told of any side effects that could happen, now, when its too late I have found out what the professionals knew all along, my son did not fit the criteria for this medication.Jake was a beautiful young man with a great future ahead of him, he wanted to become a member of An Garda Siochana, my son had the world at his feet. Jake had been diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome a couple of years earlier. Jakes condition was very mild & mainly affected his social skills & sensory issues. Jake had attended a psychologist for 2 yrs & never needed medication, then he was transferred to a psychiatrist who on their first meeting decided he should be placed on Prozac, foolishly his dad & I trusted the professionals, how wrong were we.Jake was not a sporty kid, even though he was a good footballer & great golfer, he did not enjoy either. Jake took an interest in shooting through his grandfather, so having found something that he liked & was brilliant at, I decided that we would join a gun club. Now let me state, that if for one minute we thought our son was in any way suicidal, we would never have got a gun. However, the reality of the situation is we got the gun before Jake was on prozac. The night of the 19th March was no different to any other night. Jake asked could he have the gun down from the safe, we agreed as we often took it down to practice holding it, what happened next is the part that is very hard to live with, it was my gun, so I was in charge of the rifle & Jake was in charge of the bolt & ammunition, the two were always kept separate, that night I forgot to take the ammunition away, to live with that because of a slip of the mind is nearly impossible.As I said earlier, it was no different to any other night so I had no reason to fear, little did I know by 10.00pm my son would have pulled the trigger, Jake was declared dead at 3.00am on the 20th March. We were lucky to have been left a 2 page letter by Jake to explain, if you call it lucky.