Would you break the law to cure your sick child?

This mum believes illegal drugs have saved her child’s life

A Victorian mum claims to have cured her daughter’s epilepsy using medical marijuana. What she did was illegal and she risks being prosecuted for discussing it but she hopes her experience will help other families. But it raises a serious question: Would you risk going to jail to cure your sick child?

Cheri O’Connell was told her daughter Tara didn’t have long to live. The 8-year-old had epilepsy and suffered up to 60 seizures a day. She struggled to walk and had limited speech.

Doctors told the distraught mum it was just a matter of time before Tara didn't recover from a seizure. "She was dying, she could barely walk or talk, was unable to toilet herself and slept a similar cycle to a newborn," Ms O'Connell told smh.com.au. "We had basically been told that there was not too much more we could do, just to take her home and to love her and maybe if you are lucky she'll get to nine. We didn't see her having a future at all."

Her family began a desperate search for something, anything that would help Tara. They tried other remedies with little success.

They started giving her a liquid form of medicinal marijuana known as THC-A in January 2012 and the effect has been miraculous. Even her doctors are surprised. Tara has transformed into a bubbly eight-year old who no longer needs a wheelchair. How the family purchased the medication is not known.

Ms O'Connell knew what they were doing was illegal, however felt they were left with no choice. ''We just thought, 'What else do they want us to do?' It's that or our kid dies."

There are now calls for medicinal marijuana to be legalised to treat patients.

A leading doctor at Austin Health in Texas in the US has examined Tara's case and has confirmed her recovery due to the medication. Dr Silvana Micallef wrote, "Since commencing medical cannabis (together with the cessation of her seizures), there is a convincing clinical history of improvements in all facets of her presentation as reported by her mother."

The only negative side-effects have been an increase in appetite and fatigue.

Now her younger brother Sean, 11, is also on the treatment. He has a less severe form of epilepsy and has improved dramatically since starting the treatment. Before, he could barely write but is now seizure-free and a budding artist.

Cannabis is used legally for medical purposes in Canada, the USA, the UK and Germany.

There are calls for further research into medicinal cannabis by doctors and Epilepsy Australia general manager of Client Services, Wayne Pfeiffer, told smh.com.au, "Some families have asked about it, but as it is illegal we can't really recommend it but there is a growing interest. About 70 per cent of people get control of seizures through medications, so for these remaining 30 per cent of people they are really hopeful of any new drugs."

Kay McNeice, spokeswoman for the Federal Health Department, issued the following warning:

The manufacture, possession, sale or use of any form of cannabis is prohibited under state and territory drugs and poisons legislation. These controls are in place for public health and safety to ensure, that all care is taken to prevent misuse of substances which are deemed harmful and for which there is no approved medicinal use.