“It comes down to either going to jail or a funeral.”

Ten year old Antania Hawkins experienced her first seizure at age six months. She was soon diagnosed with Dravet syndrome, a rare form of intractable epilepsy (seizures that can’t be controlled by medication) that has slowed Antania’s development, rendering her predominantly nonverbal and dependent upon a wheelchair. The condition is the result of a gene mutation that causes the child to experience hundreds of seizures each day.

After trying about 20 FDA-approved drugs to prevent Antania’s seizures, Jessica Hawkins and her mother, Nina Mitchell, took Antania and her brother, Lucciano, to Colorado in search of medical cannabis oil. In the past 18 months or so, anecdotal evidence has surfaced that the oil, extracted from a marijuana plant, can help children with crippling seizure disorders like Antania’s. In Colorado, the medicine is legal. In Pennsylvania, at least for the time being, it is not.

Read the story of this courageous family here: Pittsburgh City Paper

Photo credit: Heather Mull