A Precedent Is Set: A Hospital Agrees to Treat a Two-Month-Old Baby with Cannabis Oil

Two months ago Nicole and Ernie Núñez were glowing parents, grateful for having had a beautiful baby girl, Amylea. One day after her birth, however, when they were at home, their story took an unexpected turn: Amylea suffered her first seizure. As her parents explained, she suffers a strange variant of epilepsy that is not entirely understood.

In recent weeks the family had sought desperately to find a treatment for their child, especially after their doctors, in Albuquerque (New Mexico) were unable to find the cause of her epilepsy and did not know how to treat it. Before this plight, and without giving it much thought, they decided to pack their bags and head a bit further north, to Colorado.

At the Children's Hospital in Aurora, a town in Arapahoe County, physicians spent days trying every possible combination of medications to stop the baby's seizures. The drugs that usually help in these cases, however, are often very dangerous to the liver, and even more hazardous for a newborn. Despite the situation the girl's parents were willing to keep on fighting, and placed all their hopes on cannabis oil, which could be a solution and protect Amylea from the downsides of more standard medications.

They knew about the oil obtained from the Charlotte's Web strain, and aimed to obtain it for their daughter. The famous strain bears the name of the girl whose life it saved: Charlotte Figi, who suffered her first seizure when she was three months old, going on to endure frequent seizures that lasted from 2 to 4 hours, making it necessary to hospitalise her several times. Since then hundreds of children have benefited from its properties.

"I spent three weeks struggling with doctors to convince them to give us the go-ahead," explained Nicole. She explained that she had to make an appointment with the team of case studies, and the neurology and paediatrics teams, because she harboured the hope that the marijuana product would work. At her request, the team finally agreed to medicate the infant with cannabis oil. "For us it was something like a miracle, because they were completely against it, saying that they could not do it yet," Nicole explained.

Despite the approval, the doctors are not responsible for actually administering the oil. Rather, her parents do. Though Amylea has only received a few doses thus far, both they and her nurses have already noted improvements. In this way their daughter has become the youngest person to ever receive this type of treatment as a hospital patient.

The experts wish to underscore the importance of this news. This type of treatment illustrates how effective cannabis can be as a medical solution, and how absurd it is that the US federal government classifies it as a Class 1 drug. In fact, numerous studies have proven that this plant is truly effective in cases of intractable epilepsy.

According to a recent clinical study published by the American Epilepsy Society, cannabis oil can be a very effective treatment for intractable epilepsy. Of 261 patients who received treatment with CBD extracts, 45% experienced a significant reduction in the frequency of their epileptic seizures, and 9% were seizure-free after three months. Some children continued to note the benefits after the trial ended, even a year later.

The case of Amylea demonstrates that cannabis can even provide relief for patients who are only days old. The baby has now become part of a study of epilepsy cases that includes the use of cannabis oil. Thus, the family plans to stay on for another four months, while they continue to treat her as part of this study that, for now, is saving her life.