This girl’s story is the first sign that, in Costa Rica, medical cannabis could help people with serious illnesses. Her parents are sure about it. The girl was born with a disease that caused her up to 15 epilepsy seizures a day.
Breck and Rachel tried all possible methods to avoid that lissencephaly would kill their 2-year-old daughter, as the doctors predicted at the time.
That’s when they made the controversial decision to start treating the minor’s disease with cannabidiol: a substance extracted from the marijuana plant.
The change in the girl has been total, her seizures were reduced to one or two a day and now she is more alert, she recognizes her parents, smiles and she can even hold her body when swimming or riding a horse.
Neurologist David Luna, family physician, is surprised with the child’s progress:
We did a brain scan in 2012 and another in 2016 … I did not expect her encephalogram to change that much. The activity almost normalized after the use of cannabidiol.
The substance the girl uses is sold in the United States and it is distributed as a nutritional supplement. It has no THC, which is the component of marijuana that causes psychotropic effect among people who smoke pure plant. It is prepared by an authorized and accredited laboratory in that country.
The couple has started a battle, along with several groups, urging authorities to approve the medicinal use of some derivatives of the marijuana plant.