Brennan Linsley/AP
Matt Figi hugs and tickles his once severely-ill seven-year-old daughter Charlotte in 2014, as they walk together inside a greenhouse for a special strain of medical marijuana known as Charlotte's Web, which was named after the girl early in her treatment for crippling severe epilepsy, in the mountains west of Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- Charlotte Figi, the young girl with epilepsy who helped ignite a medical cannabis movement that changed laws around the world, died at age 13 due to coronavirus complications, according to an announcement on Tuesday.
- Figi and her parents, of Colorado, worked with medical marijuana dispensary owners the Stanley brothers to create a strain high in CBD.
- CBD is a non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis.
- The strain, dubbed Charlotte's Web, proved successful in treating Figi's debilitating seizures and her story became a turning point in the medical cannabis movement.
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Charlotte Figi, the young girl with epilepsy who helped ignite a medical cannabis movement, has died due to coronavirus-related complications, according to a Tuesday Facebook announcement. She was 13 years old and the youngest Colorado resident to die from COVID-19, the Colorado Sun reported.
Figi, her parents, and the Stanley brothers, a family that owns a Colorado Springs medical marijuana dispensary, worked together to create a cannabis strain that contained a high concentration of CBD, a non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis, and a low concentration of the psychoactive component, THC.
Figi successfully used this strain, dubbed Charlotte's Web, to treat her seizures, and soon other people with chronic conditions got wind of her story and sought CBD treatments themselves.
"She was a light that lit the world. She was a little girl who carried us all on her small shoulders," the Stanley brothers wrote in a tribute on the Charlotte's Web website. "She grew, cultivated by a community, protected by love, demanding that the world witness her suffering so that they might find a solution. She rose every day, awakening others with her courage, and with that smile that infected your spirit at the cellular level."
A family friend announced the news of Figi's death on her mother's Facebook page on Tuesday, April 7.
"Charlotte is no longer suffering. She is seizure-free forever. Thank you so much for all of your love. Please respect their privacy at this time," Nichole, the family friend, wrote.
In the week's prior, Figi's mother said her entire family was feeling ill but that they were unable to get coronavirus tests.
Figi's story shed light on the therapeutic uses of cannabis
Figi had Dravet syndrome, a type of epilepsy, and from the time she was just three months old, she experienced hundreds of seizures every day.
By the time Figi was 5, she couldn't walk or talk and needed a feeding tube. When traditional epilepsy treatments and medications failed to help Figi, her parents sought alternative options and learned about the therapeutic properties of CBD. Soon after, the Figis met the Stanley brothers.
The Stanley brothers named the strain Charlotte's Web after Figi herself, and it proved successful in reducing Figi's seizures. Eventually, Figi was able to walk and talk again. Her mother weaned her off pharmaceutical treatments and she no longer needed a feeding tube.
Figi's story became the subject of medical literature and ignited a medical cannabis movement of patients seeking CBD to treat their chronic conditions. Her story was also the focus of "WEED," a documentary by CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
In June 2018, Epidiolex became the first FDA-approved drug to treat seizures, and it used CBD as its main active ingredient. Currently, 47 states allow for the legal sale of CBD products, and Charlotte's Web remains one of the most-used CBD products in the world.
Now, the medical cannabis community and follower's of Figi's story are mourning her loss while remembering the ways she forever changed the cannabis industry.
Realm of Caring Foundation, an organization co-found by Figi's mother, shared a Facebook tribute to Figi on April 8.
"Some journeys are long and bland and others are short and poignant and meant to revolutionize the world. Such was the path chosen by this little girl with a catastrophic form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome," the post reads. "Thank you, Charlotte, for dedicating your life to the service of a greater good. We promise to carry on the mission."
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