After enduring what Charlotte Caldwell described as six days of torture, her twelve-year-old son Billy has some of his cannabis oil once again and is recovering. Officials confiscated the boy’s medicine at Heathrow Airport on Monday and had been holding it since.
Without the oil, Billy’s condition got progressively worse as the week went on and he suffered back-to-back seizures on Friday. As word of the boy’s life-threatening situation spread, it prompted Home Secrerary Sajid Javid to grant a license for Billy to receive treatment and officials immediately drafted emergency legislation overnight to allow cannabis oil to be administered to him.
“Billy actually received his first dose of oil,” said Charlotte in a video posted online. “He got his medicinal cannabis, his anti-epileptic medication back today and received his first dose at 2:30 (pm) and already we’re delighted to report that he’s brightened up a bit.”
“He obviously is still not out of the woods yet,” she continued, holding and comforting her son in his hospital bed. “As we all know, a seizure can strike at any time, but we’re just hoping, I am praying that with his anti-epileptic medication returned that we can start to get the seizures under control.”
With just one out of the seven bottles returned, Billy has enough cannabis oil, which must be administered by a specialist for the moment, to last for only twenty days. Charlotte is asking Secretary Javid to have the remaining six bottles returned and put an end to the ordeal.
Charlotte spoke at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where her son is currently receiving treatment and said that, while she is relieved that the right thing is finally being done for Billy, she is devastated that he had to nearly die for drops of natural medicine to be returned to him.
“Putting him through six says of torture has been cruel to the extreme,” she said. “My experience throughout this leaves me in no doubt the Home Office can no longer play a role, in fact, play any role in the administration of medication for sick children in our country.
Charlotte will continue her efforts, fighting for medicinal cannabis to be available to other children who need it across the United Kingdom.
