CASTLE ROCK, Colo. – A 3-year-old girl who has epileptic seizures has made a dramatic improvement since moving to Colorado to be treated with medical marijuana, her parents say.
Addyson Benton was diagnosed with Intractable Myoclonic Epilepsy when she was 9 months old.
“Her first EEG’s showed that she was seizing over 1,000 times a day!!!” her aunt, Missy Spears, wrote on gofundme.com.
Even with anti-seizure medications, Addyson was still having more than 70 seizures a day, Spears said.
The Bentons packed up their lives in West Chester, Ohio and moved to Castle Rock in March.
Making the move cost close to $10,000, the girl’s father, Adam Benson, said. But the results have been priceless.
“Two days after we moved here we started a THCA treatment,” her mom, Heather Benton, said.
Doctors prescribed an oil made from a strain of marijuana that is heavy in cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-pyschoactive component of marijuana, and low in tetrahydrocannabinol, called THC, the chemical that produces a high.
Her parents say there was a noticeable improvement within six hours of taking her first dose. The Bentons say she was walking better, without falling as much, and able to interact more with others.
“It’s fantastic,” Heather Benton said a few weeks later. “Her seizures have gone from around 100 noticeable seizures a day to the other day I think we counted 19. We were down to 19.”
Just Monday, the Bentons said on Facebook that Addyson set a new record low for the number of seizures per day – just three.
They posted a photo of the counter they use to keep track, with the caption “Record!!!! Thank you Cannabis!!!!
“It just seems so ridiculous, now that we’re actually able to try it – why is this being withheld from any child or any person dealing with seizures?” Heather told our partners at WCPO.
