A 12-year-old girl has been cured of life-threatening seizures after she took a cannabis-derived drug, called cannabidiol. Cannabidiol ...
A 12-year-old girl has been cured of life-threatening seizures after she took a cannabis-derived drug, called cannabidiol.
Cannabidiol is a drug derived from cannabis, physicians say.
Last April, the girl, Annalise Lujan, had suffered a deadly seizure during a gymnastics meet, as she started vomiting and lost all feeling in her legs.
Cannabidiol is a drug derived from cannabis, physicians say.
Last April, the girl, Annalise Lujan, had suffered a deadly seizure during a gymnastics meet, as she started vomiting and lost all feeling in her legs.
As the 12-year-old fell into the crippling seizure, her parents rushed her to the hospital, and she was put into a medically-induced coma to save her brain from damage.
Annalise was then flown to a specialist unit at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in the USA, where she was diagnosed with a rare epilepsy syndrome, known as febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome, FIRES.
The condition causes Annalise to have seizures continuously, which can lead to brain injury and even death. It meant doctors couldn’t bring her out of the coma until they had an effective method to prevent her seizures.
Because regular anti-epilepsy medication doesn’t work on this condition, her mother Maryann Estrada-Lujan researched other options.
She found a cannabis-derived drug, called cannabidiol, and Annalise was able to be brought out of the coma after three treatments on May 8.
Now, Annalise is no longer plagued by constant seizures and is in therapy to regain her cognitive abilities.
However, while the cannabis derived drug was useful in Annalise’s case, medical experts are still divided on its overall effectiveness.
Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy admitted that marijuana could be helpful in treating certain conditions, but cautioned that there needs to be more research.
In a groundbreaking study, scientists at New York University and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital found cannabidiol halved a rare epileptic seizure.
This marked a major milestone in efforts to introduce the drug as an effective treatment plan.
However, other experts claimed the study wasn’t as promising because the patients were also taking other drugs.
Scientists are expressing the need to further examine the medical benefits of cannabis before it is made readily available to patients.
Experts at New York University and Great Ormond Street children’s hospital in London said the results could make a ‘considerable difference’ to adults and children suffering with epilepsy.
In five percent of patients given the oil, the debilitating fits stopped altogether.
Punch
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