The mother of a Nelson teenager who died while being treated with Elixinol, a cannabidiol (CBD) product says a report that the drug did nothing to help his illness is wrong.
Alex Renton was 19 when he died last year after nearly three months in Wellington Hospital with "status epilepticus" - a kind of prolonged seizure. He was the first person in New Zealand to be granted Elixinol after Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne approved the one-off use after more than 20 conventional treatments had been exhausted. At the time he was administered Elixinol, his mother, Rose Renton, said his high temperature had dropped, his seizures stopped and he was "noticeably calmer". It was later revealed that Rose Renton had been secretly dosing her son with medicinal cannabis weeks before it was approved. When no-one was around in the Intensive Care Unit her son was in she would put it down the back of his mouth with a syringe after another mother posted it to her. In a report examining the use of cannabidiol oil (CBD) in Renton's treatment, Wellington Hospital specialists have concluded it did nothing to improve his seizures and at no point did medical staff see any improvement in his condition. But Rose Renton told Radio NZ that wasn't the case and the only failing was that he wasn't granted medicinal cannabis sooner. "His whole family was there and they can all attest to the same thing - in those last days Alex found a peace that was not there before." "It took two months to get it to Alex and by then his body was closing down. So at least Alex got what he would have chosen, but too little, too late," she told Radio NZ. - Stuff |
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