or he thought from the amount of blood that he had already done some damage. the first blow to my back was pretty close to a spot where he could have drawn a lot of blood. the second one punctured a long. it s possible that i don t there was a good bit of blood. but i like to think that gus at some point in that attack, the old gus came back. i like to think that, i want to believe that. he certainly wasn t himself when he started? no, no, he wasn t himself about. that s not your son? no. whatever took my son, the bipolar disorder, the schizophrenia, whatever illness there was, took my son and worsened in the last few months, he was on medication and he wasn t keeping appointments, there was very little i could do
there was a good bit of blood. but i like to think that gus at some point in that attack, the old gus came back. i like to think that, i want to believe that. he certainly wasn t himself when he started? no, no, he wasn t himself about. that s not your son? no. whatever took my son, the bipolar disorder, the schizophrenia, whatever illness there was, took my son and worsened in the last few months, he was on medication and he wasn t keeping appointments, there was very little i could do to turn that around, i had done everything i could the day before, i had taken him to the it s not like, you know heetds my son, so i could automatically enrole him in the hospital somewhere, he s an adult. everything i had done the day before, we tried and had been
custody without a bed. the next morning gus attacked his father. since the attack three area hospital confirmed they had beds available but no one called them to check. criegh deeds still lives at the same house where the attack happened just over two months ago. he is mostly recovered from his injuries show he is visibly scarred and returned to his seat at the state senate with a new purpose, mental health reform in virginia to fix the system that failed him and failed his son. that s the motivation for the state senator. and the need for reform extends far beyond virginia. there is so much stigma about mental illness in this country. tonight we want you to hear criegh deeds. we want you to hear about the son that he loved, the son he lost and the pain that too many families face often all alone. what do you want people to
he s just so full of love. and i m just determined that he not be remembered that way. by the end of his life, but that he be remembered by all the goodness. he was just this unbelievable guy. he could sing, he could dance. i mean, he could shake his booty like nobody else. and he would entertain people with just his dancing. as a young man. and when he was in high school, he got the spirit award a couple of times, and he was senior, got a senior award he was valedictorian of his class. he was valedictorian of his high school. gus was something special. all my children are. for me, it was a long time before i was even able to talk about my brother. the fact that you re able to talk about him is so nice. i ve got no choice, you know. life goes on. now there s a little bit of focus on mental illness, and if i can make a difference, if we can make a change that s going to save lives, we have to do it. you know, we have i ve got no choice, you know.
such love inside that this illness was nothing voluntary, it s not like he did something to deserve this sort of condition. and as society, we need to genuinely look at the way we treat the mental illness as because it s one of the great problems of our age in equity, between the way we treat the physical illnesses and the way we treat mental illnesses. i ve read that meantal illness is another physical illness, it s just another chemical imbalance in the brain. that s another way to look at it, mental illness is a physical illness. after the attack, how did you hear about what finally happened to gus? well, see gus was in just