Charlotte Figi, who helped popularize CBD for medical use, dies at age 13
Charlotte Figi, whose use of cannabidiol, or CBD, to treat her epilepsy helped popularize its medicinal use, died Tuesday. She was 13.
Her death was confirmed by her parents, Paige and Steven Figi, who said the cause was most likely complications related to COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
Charlotte became the face of the medicinal CBD movement when she was 5 years old, after it appeared that taking CBD eased the symptoms of her epilepsy.
She had her first seizure when she was 3 months old. Soon after, her parents were told that she had Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that starts in infancy.
By age 5, Charlotte was having more than 300 seizures a week, about one every 30 minutes, Paige Figi said. Charlotte was in a wheelchair and used a feeding tube because she could not swallow, her mother said. On several occasions, she was resuscitated after her heart stopped.
The family tried dozens of medications but they did not work. “We were told by the doctor there was nothing left to try pharmaceutically,” Figi said.
Figi began to research CBD, a nonintoxicating, nonpsychotropic compound found in cannabis. The cannabinoid was being used overseas to treat epileptic patients. She found a grower who agreed to grow the hemp needed to extract CBD oil for Charlotte.
“I didn’t think it was going to work,” Figi said.
But it did. Charlotte did not have any seizures for seven days after starting the treatment, Figi said.
“She started talking, making eye contact, walking, and we removed her feeding tube,” her mother said. The seizures were reduced to about one a month.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the chief medical correspondent on CNN, interviewed Charlotte for his 2013 documentary special “Weed,” and later advocated the use of CBD to treat epilepsy.
Charlotte’s story made national headlines, and soon other epileptic patients followed her lead. Many saw similar results, Figi said.
In 2011, Charlotte’s Web CBD was founded by Joel Stanley, the hemp grower who helped Charlotte. The company was named after her.
“What began as her story, became the shared story of hundreds of thousands,” Stanley wrote on the company’s Facebook page. “Her story built communities, her need built hope, and her legacy will continue to build harmony.”
In addition to her parents, Charlotte is survived by her twin sister, Chase; her brother, Maxwell, 16; and her mother’s husband, Greg Iafeliece.