Modesto Father Claims Medical Marijuana Improved 5-Year-Old's Severe Epilepsy
MODESTO (CBS13) - A Modesto 5-year-old suffers from a rare form of epilepsy, which his father says has improved with the help of medicinal marijuana.
When Jayden was just 4 years old, he was taking up to 22 pharmaceutical pills a day and still having more than 50 seizures every day. But thanks to medical marijuana, Jason David says his son can finally enjoy being a kid.
"Jayden was having 300 to 500 myoclonic twitches and seizures a day," said David. "Grand mal seizures were lasting an hour and a half. After five minutes we were seeing brain damage."
Jayden has a rare form of epilepsy. Since he was a baby, he's had to take several medications a day to control his seizures. But David says it made Jayden comatose.
"My son started dying from them," said David. "The last two months before I used medical marijuana, Jayden was yelling and screaming, crying out in pain. He wasn't eating; he wasn't sleeping."
David says he was faced with a life or death decision. So he started doing research and he prayed.
"I asked God for a sign and he showed me medical marijuana," said David.
The marijuana medicine is a compound called cannabidiol (CBD). Jayden takes a drop of the sweet-tasting oil on his tongue.
"One day after I came home from church, I gave it to Jayden and that was the first day Jayden ever went seizure free in his life," said David.
David says Jayden no longer twitches for hours in a wheelchair. He walks, sings and even loves on his dad -- all things he never could do before.
"It hasn't been perfect, but it's still 1,000 times better than we've ever had before," said David. "Now he can swim. I can throw him in the water. He can ride rides at Great America, be a child again. We missed so many years of his childhood."
David says his mission now is not only to help Jayden, but to help other parents in the same situation with another option. And he says he doesn't ask "why me?" anymore.
"Maybe this is why," said David. "Jayden's mission on earth was to help. His suffering might help other people."
Jayden now takes three doses of CBD everyday along with just two pharmaceutical pills to control his seizures.
David has documented his son's progress in YouTube videos and on a Facebook page that has been inspiring other parents to try CBD on their children with epilepsy.
