Photo credit: Daily Mirror

Hope for an epileptic boy, 12, 'fighting for life' as Home Office sends medicinal cannabis oil seized from his mother at Heathrow to his hospital.

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Billy Caldwell, 12, had traveled to Canada with his mother, Charlotte, to get the cannabis oil upon hearing Billy’s doctor was ordered to stop prescribing it.

Customs officials confiscated the oil upon their arrival back in London.

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The boy was hospitalized on Friday, suffering several seizures.

His case has stirred debate on the medicinal use of cannabis. Politicians from different parties are backing the family and campaigners are calling for changes to the law.

“This morning, I’ve used an exceptional power as Home Secretary to urgently issue a license to allow Billy Caldwell to be treated with cannabis oil,” the minister, Sajid Javid, said in a statement. “My decision is based on the advice of senior clinicians who have made clear this is a medical emergency.”

Charlotte Caldwell, who says Billy was free of seizures when he was using the cannabis oil, made a statement to reporters outside Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where Billy was being treated. She called for the law to be changed.

“No other family should have to go through this sort of ordeal, traveling halfway around the world to get medication which should be freely available to our desperately ill children,” she said.

“This is a wake-up call for our country. In the 21st century, we need to have a more humane policy, not panic measures. I hope the government reflects upon what happened and what they’ve put our family through these last few days.”

Her son suffers from intractable epilepsy which means his horrific seizures can last for hours, and he must be pumped with medicine to stop them.

Ms. Caldwell previously told MailOnline: 'Billy's seizures are silent. I call them the silent killers.

'He has status epilepsy which means he can't come round from the seizure on his own, he needs medicine and oxygen because he starts turning blue. One seizure can kill him. If it doesn't work I have to call 999.

'Our house is 50 minutes from the hospital and they begin working on him in the back of the ambulance.

'When we arrive I can't go in and I have to sit outside while they give him medicine to try and bring him back.

'The nurses are so lovely, they come and give me updates, and they tell me 'we don't know if we'll get him back this time'.

Billy became the first person to receive an NHS prescription for cannabis oil containing Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in 2017 after it was proven to dramatically reduce his seizures from as many as 100 per day.

He was first given the medical marijuana in Los Angeles where his mother Charlotte Caldwell took him for treatment a year ago.

The Home Office had previously said that while it was sympathetic to the child’s plight, it had a duty to stop banned substances from entering Britain.

Under British law, cannabis is listed as a schedule 1 drug, meaning that it is not recognized as having a therapeutic value. Schedule 1 drugs can be used for research purposes and clinical trials, but only under a Home Office license.

The Caldwell family, who normally live in Northern Ireland, have received support from several members of parliament from different political parties, including Dan Poulter of the ruling Conservative Party.

Britain’s interior minister used an exceptional power on Saturday to release medicinal cannabis oil.

The Home Office has now agreed to release medicinal cannabis it confiscated from the mother.

A family spokesman said on Saturday: 'The medication that she brought into the country and was confiscated, this medication is on the way to the hospital.'

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<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit: <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-epilepsy-patient-billy-caldwell-12717035"> Mirror <a></span>

Charlotte and Billy

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<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit: <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-epilepsy-patient-billy-caldwell-12717035"> Mirror <a></span>

Last picture of Billy taken on Friday before he was struck by a massive seizure

Related Sources: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-cannabis/british-boy-hospitalized-after-medicinal-cannabis-confiscated-idUSKBN1JC0BE; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5851275/Home-Office-medicinal-cannabis-oil-confiscated-epileptic-boy-12-Billy-Caldwell.html

<b>By: Lexy </b>

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