For the first time, cannabis oil is used in a hospital to treat a 2-month-old for seizures

Nicole and Ernie Nunez, a New Mexico couple who's newborn was suffering seizures, were faced with a difficult choice.  Continue to keep her on a string of pharmaceutical drugs, none of which had helped prevent the seizures, or attempt something a bit more extreme by heading to Colorado for medical marijuana use.

“About a day after we went home from delivery is when she had her first seizure,” Nicole said. “She has a rare form of epilepsy. They don’t know exactly the type."

“The medication she’s on is hard for her liver, and so we’re trying to do something different that’s not so bad on her body,” Ernie said, explaining that they opted for the second choice.

First, they arrived in Colorado and were refused administration of cannabis oil.

“I sat for a good three weeks fighting with the doctors and trying to talk them into giving me the okay,” Nicole said.  Eventually, the doctors acquiesced and allowed the use of the oil, though they refused to administer it (it had to be given by the family).  “I’ve been working with the case study team and the neurology team here at children’s and I’m hopeful this will work," said Nicole.

“For us to get the approval for us to administer it while she in the NICU while she’s a patient…it’s kind of like a miracle, because they were completely against it saying, ‘No you can’t do it, you have to wait until she’s an out-patient.”

The oil administration began and was an, almost, immediate success.  Amylea, the young daughter receiving the treatment, is the youngest person to ever receive cannabis oil for treatment in a hospital.

This success compounds on a previous study that registered, of 261 patients given CBD treatment, 45% experienced a significant reduction in seizure frequency, and 9% were seizure-free at three months. Also, in this study, some of the children continued to experience benefits after the trial ended, even after a year.