The desperation of a mother who killed her severely autistic 14-year-old son after doctors could not figure out why he was in pain has been revealed in a heart-breaking handwritten note.



Dorothy Spourdalakis and her relative Jolanta Agat Skordzka, both of Chicago, were charged with first-degree murder in June after investigators said the women stabbed Spourdalakis’ son, Alex, to death in a failed murder-suicide plot.



In a note that the mother wrote before trying to end her life, Spourdalakis accused the medical community of neglecting her son, keeping him restrained 'like an animal,' and treating him with psychiatric drugs that made his condition worse.



Out of options: The teen (right) required constant care, and his mother and godmother were growing desperate

Stabbed: 14-year-old Alex Spourdalakis was found dead in his bed Sunday afternoon, with several stab wounds to his chest. Above, a recent picture of Alex restrained at a hospital where he was being treated for gastrointestinal problems

Suicide pact: Dorothy Spourdalakis, 50, and Jolanta Skrodzka, 40, planned to commit suicide after killing 14-year-old Alex. They took sleeping pills, but did not die Special bond: Alex (right) had lived with his mother and godmother between April and June after she petitioned to remove him from a hospital Spourdalakis removed Alex from Loyola Gottlieb Memorial Hospital this past spring and brought him to live with her in River Grove, Illinois, after claiming that her son was neglected and abused at the hospital.

Weeks later, Spourdalakis and Skrodzka found themselves unable to handle the responsibilities of providing Alex with the 24/7 care he required.

Convinced that no one could help the boy, whose condition had deteriorated since he came to live with them, the two desperate women allegedly made a suicide pact and decided to kill him to spare the boy further suffering.

Investigators say Spourdalakis stabbed her son in the chest several times, then slashed his wrist, nearly severing his hand, and then took a large quantity of sleeping pills along with Skordzka.

The women, however, survived the suicide attempt and were charged with murder.

A new documentary produced by the Autism Media Channel has shed light on the months leading up to the autistic teenager's death – a time which his mother and godmother spent struggling to care for him around the clock and figure out what was ailing him.

While staying at home with his caretakers, Alex , a 200-pound non-verbal autistic boy, developed uncontrollable fits of violence, during which he would kick, thrash about and bite those who approached him. River Grove Police Chief Roger Loni told CBS News that it took six to eight paramedics to subdue him.

Alex's mother believed that her son's violent behavior was caused be severe stomach pains, but according to the woman, doctors did not provide a diagnosis. Instead, the 44-year-old mother said that her severely disabled son was left in four-point restrains in the emergency room for 12 days. During his confinement, the 14-year-old would often writhe in pain on the gurney while his mother washed his feet, fed him and slept on the floor by his side.

CBS reported that three months before Alex's death, Loyola Gottlieb Memorial Hospital was cited for wrongly keeping the teenager restrained without doctor's orders.

Finally, help came from a gastric specialist in New York who confirmed Dorothy Spourdalakis’ fears when he discovered that Alex's stomach was studded with a myriad of tiny ulcers that caused him severe pain.

While the family pursued treatment, Alex's caretakers were growing increasingly desperate. His mother said that no hospital would keep her son, and her insurance company refused to cover the cost of his medical care. In one email, the anguished woman wrote in part: 'Alex has been forgotten... I don't have a safety net so I could help him recover.'

Dorothy's attorney, Michael Botti, said of his client that she was out of options and had nowhere to go for help.

Before the woman and Alex's godmother ingested sleeping pills in a failed attempt to end their lives, Spourdalakis left a handwritten suicide note explaining why, in her opinion, her son was better off dead. Worst fear confirmed: The mother later found out that her son's stomach was covered in lesions that were causing him great pain Heartbreak: The mother said that no hospital would keep her son, and her insurance company refused to cover the cost of his medical care List of complaints: Before Spourdalakis' attempted suicide, she left this handwritten note explaining why in her opinion Alex was better off dead 'Alex will no longer be treated like and animal,' she wrote, 'or subjected to restraints.'

The letter noted that 'Alex will not suffer under the system 'and 'will not be neglected and abused by the medical community any more.'

The woman also claimed that her son was being treated as 'retarded or less than human' just because he was disabled, and that as a way of treatment, he was being stuffed with psychiatric drugs 'that made him crazy.'

This week, Spourdalakis was ordered held without bond. Her attorney is considering going the route of an insanity defense in the case.

Dorothy Spourdalakis had pleaded for financial help this spring to remove her son Alex from hospitals in Chicago, where she claimed he was neglected and abused. Controversial British autism researcher Andrew Wakefield personally recorded a YouTube request for help last month to find Alex a home and said that he would be taken away from his mother if supporters didn't act. After Wakefield's appeal, Alex left the hospital and was taken into Spourdalakis' care.

Weeks later, police say, Spourdalakis and his godmother and caretaker Skrodzka could no longer handle round-the-clock care for Alex because they believed the 200-pound teen's 'emotional condition had worsened' since he was removed from the hospital.

Andrew Wakefield, a controversial British autism researcher, recorded a personal appeal for donations or help to have Alex removed from the hospital where he was committed in May

The Chicago Tribune reports that Spourdalakis and Skrodzka planned a suicide pact in their cramped apartment above a plumber in River Grove, Illinois.



They first allegedly tried to kill Alex with sleeping pills. When that didn't work, police say, Alex's mother grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the teenage boy multiple times in the chest as he lay in bed, according to authorities. She then allegedly slashed the boy's wrist, nearly cutting off his hand.



Once Alex was dead, she handed the knife to Skrodzka, who used it to kill the family cat. A suicide note said the women killed the cat because they did not want it to go to a shelter.



The pair wiped off the knife and returned it to the butcher's block in the kitchen. The detailed their actions in a suicide note, according to authorities.



They then took sleeping pills with the intention of killing themselves and laid down in Alex's bedroom and locked the door, according to authorities.



The boy's father, who is separated from Spourdalakis, found Alex dead and the two women barely conscious after he went to the apartment when no one answered his repeated phone calls.

Round-the-clock: Skrodzka is seen feeding Alex through a straw. She also provided care for the teen around the clock

Spourdalakis, 50, and Skrodzka, 44, were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and then charged with first degree murder.



'The murder was committed in a cold, calculated and premeditated manner,' Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Maureen O’Brien told the Tribune.

The two women had been publicly campaigning for Alex to receive better care since March, when Spourdalakis alleged in the autism activism site Age of Autism, that her son was mistreated at Loyola University Medical Center.

Days later, Spourdalakis wrote on Age of Autism that a donor had come forward and given her the money to let her take Alex away from the hospital. She said that the money allowed her to take Alex to get the care needed.



'We know no one will help us unless we help ourselves,' she wrote.

By May, he was back in the hospital and was facing long term psychiatric commitment.



Controversial British surgeon Andrew Wakefield also became involved, asking the 'autism community' to help find Alex a place to stay before he was put in 'long term psychiatric care.' He said Alex needed someone to provide a place where he could 'be on the necessary diet' and 'complete the treatment' for his autism.

Wakefield has been stricken from the British medical register. He is an autism researcher who claims to have found a link between the measles vaccine and autism - though his research was later discredited.

'He needs something simple in the country where he can run around and get the treatment that he needs so he can get better,' a beleaguered Spourdalakis said in a May interview with Autism Media Channel.

No answer: When no one answered the phone, the boy's father and uncle went over to the apartment and discovered Alex dead

Interviewed: The boy's mother, Dorothy Spourdalakis, was interviewed this past March when he was being kept in restraints at a local hospital. Dorothy has already issued a statement to the police but the caregiver is not cooperating

Wakefield responded to the MailOnline's story with the following statement:



'On Sunday May 26, members of the Autism Media Channel (AMC) went to the Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. There we visited the late Alex Spourdalakis, his mother Dorothy, and his Godmother. Alex was in four-point restraint and apparently refusing to eat or drink.



His mother was beyond exhaustion and despair. The main reason for her despair was the prospect of Alex being sent to a long-stay psychiatric hospital and heavily medicated with behavior-altering drugs drugs without any treatment of his underlying medical problems.



AMC issued an appeal on Alex’s behalf to protect him from this fate. We did not, at any stage, advocate for his release from the Lutheran General Hospital.



The following day Dorothy informed us that the hospital could find nowhere that would take Alex and that his insurance carrier had refused to pay for any further inpatient care at the Lutheran General Hospital.



It appears that, as a consequence, he was discharged from that hospital despite his precarious position and that of his carers. It is our opinion that Alex’s tragic death reflects the abject failings of a medical system that has no effective answer to the autism crisis.'