Long Search For 6-Year-Old’s Seizure Relief Ends With Medical Marijuana

[kpete]

Long Search For 6-Year-Old’s Seizure Relief Ends With Medical Marijuana

Now Charlotte is feeding herself, walking, and riding her bike. She usually only has one seizure a day, and usually in her sleep.

BY NICOLE FLATOW ON AUGUST 8, 2013 AT 9:06 AM

Before she started using medical marijuana, Charlotte Figi was suffering from seizures lasting 2 to 4 hours that landed her in the hospital and several times stopped her heart. She lost the ability to walk, talk, and eat, and her parents said their goodbyes on several occasions. Doctors had her on seven different potent, addictive medications; they had her on a special diet. But each time, the benefits were only temporary, and the side effects were overwhelming.

Charlotte’s mother, Paige Figi, had voted against the Colorado medical marijuana ballot initiative that passed in 2000. But after doing some research, she and her husband Matt changed their minds. They found a video of a young boy in California who suffered dramatic seizures and whose life had been changed by a strain of medical marijuana.

The Figis called doctor after doctor to find two who would sign off on a medical marijuana card for their five-year-old daughter. “Everyone said no, no, no, no, no, and I kept calling and calling,” Paige told CNN. Eventually, they found a Harvard-trained doctor who treated other medical marijuana patients. He found a strain similar to the one used by the little boy in California – low in the psychoactive component of marijuana, THC, and high in another chemical compound known to be therapeutic, CBD. She takes it in liquid form, twice a day. The seizures stopped, and they were determined to find more than the initial two ounces they had procured for $800.

To find a steady supply of the substance, they turned to brothers known as the “Robin Hoods of marijuana” who ask patients to donate only what they can. Forty-one other patients with seizures and cancer are now using the strain that’s been named Charlotte’s Web for its first user.

MORE HERE:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/07/health/charlotte-child-medical-marijuana/index.html

[kestrel91316]

1. I had a client 15 years ago who lost her 2 yo boy to intractable seizures.

It breaks my heart to think that he might have been helped by something as cheap and simple as cannabis. Sigh.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. $800 for TWO ounces?????????

Now I see why the push for medical cannabis....monopoly = high prices.
Good on the parents for finding an alternative source.
Wonder if the DEA will be knocking on their door now.