The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Mum makes emotional cannabis oil plea as Sophia, 7, recovers from latest seizure
Parents in race for medicinal licence tell officials that their little girl does not have time
The condition of a young girl awaiting a licence to be treated with medicinal cannabis oil has improved.
Sophia Gibson, from Newtownards in Co Down, Northern Ireland, was rushed to hospital on Tuesday after suffering a seizure. The seven-year-old suffers from a severe form of epilepsy known as Dravet syndrome.
Her parents, Darren Gibson and Danielle Davis, say the medication relieves their daughter’s condition. Ms Davis said Sophia was placed in a druginduced coma on Tuesday but the next morning her daughter’s condition had improved. She said: “Sophia is off the ventilator and has been breathing on her own, which is a godsend. It’s really just up to Sophia when she wakes up a wee bit more and see how the medications have worn off, and hopefully no more life-threatening seizures, because if that happens again, she will get ventilated again. To stand there feeling hopeless and helpless, just hoping she pulls through, I was heartbroken, devastated.”
Sophia’s family have applied for a licence for her to be treated with cannabis oil in Northern Ireland. Previously she was treated with it when her family took her to the Netherlands.
Ms Davis has urged the Home Office and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland to work to ensure Sophia gets her medication as quickly as possible saying: “We keep reiterating, Sophia does not have time. We have complied and followed everything they have asked for, went down the proper protocols, followed the procedures to a T, and this is what has happened.”
She believes if Sophia was being treated with medicinal cannabis oil, her seizure would have been much less severe. She said: “As a mother I just feel so horrible because I know there is something that can help Sophia. If I was to bring it into this country, I am classed a criminal. This cannot keep happening.
“It will come to the day where I am visiting a headstone and not a hospital, and I pray to God that doesn’t happen.”
The Home Office has confirmed it has received two applications for Sophia, which the panel agreed to consider as one. Recommendations from the panel are given to the Northern Ireland’s department of health to consider as licensing decisions are devolved.
A Home Office spokesman said: “The government has created an expert panel to review individual medicinal cannabis licence applications.
“The Home Office does not comment on individual applications.”