O’Sullivan child-abuse story revisited
When many people think of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, they think of men returning from war.
Patrick O’Sullivan is a 31-year-old ex-Ontario Hockey Leaguer and National Hockey Leaguer. He also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
John O’Sullivan, Patrick’s father, was a career journeyman in the depths of the NHL’s minor leagues who never so much as played in the American Hockey League. By most accounts, he burned bridges everywhere he went and eventually ran out of minor league teams that would give him week-long contracts.
As the story goes, John became obsessed with the thought of Patrick making the NHL one day and was convinced that extreme abuse was the best way to make that happen.
Patrick says he knew at a young age that he was eventually going to have to do something drastic to take his father out of his life.
“I always looked at it, even as a kid when I started to understand what was happening to me, that the person was my father, but only on the simplest level,” said O’Sullivan. “There was nothing else that he did that would constitute him being a parent.”
O’Sullivan’s father allegedly abused him on a regular basis, doing things such as making him eat his own vomit and making him run down the side of the highway behind the family van in the dead of winter. John also stood behind the glass and screamed at Patrick during games.
Other hockey parents allegedly saw this and suspected there may be other things going on behind the scenes but nobody did anything about it. At one point, somebody witnessed John kicking Patrick outside of an arena after a game. The witness spoke to team management but nobody called the police.
“These other parents knew that my dad was a little off, they even saw some stuff happen at the rink and in the parking lot,” said O’Sullivan. “Nobody ever followed up. They couldn’t believe how serious it was because of how good of a player I was.”
Many people hesitate to report child abuse because they don’t have concrete evidence that it is happening. Despite popular belief, there doesn’t need to be concrete evidence.
“If you suspect child abuse in any way, you would contact either the police or you could contact Children’s Aid directly,” said Michelle Weglarz, who has her masters degree in social work and is a registered clinical social worker. “All you have to do is suspect it.”
According to a 2012 report done by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the percentage of Canadians who have suffered some type of child abuse is high as 34 per cent. The three types are physical, sexual and exposure to intimate partner violence.
“There’s no way for the victim to talk about what’s going on because it’s a child,” said O’Sullivan. “And that’s really why it’s so important for all the other parents to be aware and to actually step up and do something about it.”