Two-month-old Amylea Nunez made history at a Colorado hospital last week when she became the first patient there to receive cannabis oil as part of her treatment.
You see, little Amylea has spent the majority of her life inside a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU.) This is because of seizures that began a day after she was brought home from her December delivery in New Mexico. While doctors at Children’s Hospital in Aurora have been attempting to treat her rare form of epilepsy, the medications are causing damage to her liver.
Amylea’s mother, Nicole, researched alternative treatments and found Charlotte’s Web — a cannabis oil known to treat epilepsy in toddlers and children. Although the THC level is under 1 percent (so kids don’t get high,) the move is definitely controversial.
“I sat for a good three weeks fighting with the doctors and trying to talk them into giving me the OK,” Nicole told KRQE News 13. “I’ve been working with the case study team and the neurology team here at Children’s and I’m hopeful this will work.”
On Friday, the hospital finally gave the green light for the family (but not hospital personnel) to administer the oil. Nurses have noted a difference in Amylea’s level of alertness after the first two doses, and she is now part of a case study that includes using the cannabis oil.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to watch your child have multiple seizures on a daily basis and to be powerless to stop them. Cannabis oil might not be most parents’ first treatment option, but what happens when other medications are failing? It’s an impossible situation to be in.
When I hear about epileptic children whose lives are drastically improved by cannabis — like Charlotte Figi, whom “Charlotte’s Web” was named after — it makes me wonder how many parents wouldn’t try it as a last resort. At the same time, I understand when medical professionals are against cannabis oil because the scientific evidence of its benefits is still lacking.
Source: Mom’s Story
