Colorado Child Who Pioneered Medical Marijuana Dies

As a mom of a little girl, my eyes are watering while I type this, and my heart goes out to those who are experiencing every parent's worst nightmare: the loss of their child.

On April 7, Charlotte Figi's family posted to Facebook that she had passed away.

Charlotte is the Colorado child known to have pioneered the usage of medical marijuana to treat seizures. She had a rare form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome and her parents campaigned across the country fighting for easier access to medical marijuana to help Charlotte battle the disease, according to Fox 31.

Like many children who suffer from violent seizures, cannabis oil successfully controlled Charlotte's seizures. In fact, Charlotte's Web Medical Hemp Act of 2014 is named after her. Unfortunately, after her battle with Dravet Syndrome, she was hospitalized due to the novel coronavirus.

UPDATE FROM CHARLOTTE'S FAMILY: Posted to Facebook on Wednesday

"Our family is grateful for the outpouring of love while we mourn the loss of our Charlotte. Charlotte had a catastrophic form of early childhood epilepsy called Dravet syndrome. We are moved by the continual impact that Charlotte’s life has made shedding light on the potential of cannabis for quality of life.

We’d like to clarify some of the information that has been shared. Our entire family had been ill for close to a month starting early March, but did not initially fit all of the criteria for COVID-19 testing. For that reason, we were told to self-treat at home unless the symptoms worsened. Charlotte’s symptoms worsened, so she was admitted to the PICU on April 3rd. She was treated on the COVID-19 designated floor using all of the medical protocols set in place. On Friday April 3rd, she was tested, the results were negative for COVID-19 and discharged on Sunday April 5th when she seemingly began to improve. Charlotte had a seizure in the early morning on April 7th resulting in respiratory failure and cardiac arrest. Seizures are not uncommon with illness and paramedics were called returning us to the PICU. Given our family’s month-long history with illness and despite the negative test results, she was treated as a likely COVID-19 case. Her fighting spirit held out as long as it could and she eventually passed in our arms peacefully."

April 5 Facebook post:

Charlotte is DISCHARGED😀

Sweet Holy Moses.

This kid...heh heh...she is one tough SOB. But I think my mom said it best, “Maybe we should all get transfusions from her.”

Coloradans everywhere mourn for this family and their precious little girl who changed the narrative for so many children suffering from seizures across the U.S.

R.I.P. Charlotte Figi