420 Girls Charlotte and Paige Figi

[420RedHead]

Charlotte Figi had her first seizure when she was 3 months old. Over the next few months the girl, affectionately called Charlie, had frequent seizures lasting two to four hours, and she was hospitalized repeatedly.By the time she was 3, Charlotte was having up to 300 grand mal seizures every week. Eventually she lost the ability to walk, talk and eat. The seizures were so severe Charlotte's heart stopped a number of times. Doctors suggested putting the child in a medically induced coma to give her small, battered body a rest.

The first time Paige Figi gave her daughter, Charlotte, cannabis oil, the child's seizures stopped for seven days.
Matt Figi said of his daughter that he literally saw Charlotte's brain making connections that haven't been made in years, he wants other people, other parents, to know that this is a viable option.

Today, Charlotte is thriving. Her seizures are down to 2 to 3 per month, almost solely in her sleep. She is walking, can feed herself and is talking more and more each day, her parents say. The marijuana strain Charlotte and 41 other people use to help their symptoms has been named after her. It's called Charlotte's Web.

 

[420RedHead]

In August, the remarkable story of Charlotte Figi, a now 7 year old girl whose dangerous, frequent seizures resisted all treatments until medical marijuana, prompted CNN's medical expert Sanjay Gupta to overcome his own resistance to the drug's use. Today CBS News follows up to note that apparently dozens of other families are now making the trek to Colorado in order to get access to the same strain of marijuana, known as "Charlotte's Web," for children also suffering from rare epileptic disorders that are defying treatment.
- reason.com

 

[420RedHead]

Paige took her daughter to Chicago to see a Dravet specialist, who put the child on a ketogenic diet frequently used to treat epilepsy that's high in fat and low in carbohydrates. The special diet forces the body to make extra ketones, natural chemicals that suppress seizures. It's mainly recommended for epileptic patients who don't respond to treatment. The diet helped control Charlotte's seizures but had a lot of side effects. She suffered from bone loss. Her immune system plummeted. And new behavioral problems started popping up. Two years into the diet, the seizures came back. - CNN

 

[420RedHead]

Charlotte's father found a video online of a California boy whose Dravet was being successfully treated with cannabis. The strain was low in tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the compound in marijuana that's psychoactive. It was also high in cannabidiol, or CBD, which has medicinal properties but no psychoactivity. Scientists think the CBD quiets the excessive electrical and chemical activity in the brain that causes seizures. It had worked for this boy, his parents saw a major reduction in the boy's seizures. Maybe it could work for Charlotte, who by this time had lost the ability to walk, talk and eat. - CNN

 

[420RedHead]

It's a strain of cannabis thousands are waiting to buy for their children, in hopes it will heal them.
Those producing "Charlotte's Web" say the wait will soon be over for nearly a thousand Coloradans.
Some children battling epilepsy have seen a drastic turnaround and reduction of seizures after using Charlotte's Web, an oil made from marijuana plants very low in THC and high in a chemical called cannabidiol, or CBD. - ABC News, Denver Colorado

 

[420RedHead]

Mrs Figi has been in contact with the Stanley brothers who run a non-profit organization which provides cannabis to people with epilepsy (Charlotte is pictured in one of their promotional tents). The Stanley brothers do it for very little money and sell the cannabis for pennies. Parents all over the U.S. have been inundating Mrs Figi with phone calls and emails expressing their hope for a possible remedy to the syndrome. She said, over 200 pediatric patients will be trying Charlotte's Web in the next few weeks, we expect there will be thousands soon. I don't have a political agenda, I just want parents to be able to treat and help their children. Parents need access to this medicine as soon as possible. Medical marijuana is currently legal in 20 U.S. states. - Mail Online - UK

 

[420RedHead]