Two-year-old Larisa Rule suffered brain damage when she was born, leaving her partially blind and deaf, and with cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
From just two days old she started having up to 60 uncontrollable seizures a day - some lasting more than an hour.
Doctors tried almost everything to stop the convulsions - which they warned would soon stop her brain from growing - and even considered brain surgery.
But when nothing worked her parents Jaylene Siery and Peter Rule discovered that a daily dose of liquid cannabis had helped other children like Larisa.
They found a man on the internet who grows the plant for the sole purpose of helping poorly people and within just a day of trying it Larisa was having just five seizures a day.
Miss Siery, 22, said: 'People tell me I’m a terrible mother and they say things like "you wouldn’t give your daughter heroin".
'But little do they realise, most of the medicines the doctors gave us before had opium in - the same plant heroin is derived from.
'I’m not a bad mother, I want nothing but good for my child.
'She was in pain, she was suffering, and I tried everything before I tried this.
'Sadly, my miracle treatment is illegal and in administering it to my daughter three times a day, I’m breaking the law. I risk prison.'Larissa was born in Gosforth Hospital in New South Wales, Australia, suffering from diabetes and with her cord wrapped round her neck.
Her mother claims it left her with feeding problems, causing a low blood sugar, leading to seizures which further damaged her brain and caused more convulsions and epilepsy.
Doctors tried countless anti-convulsant treatments but none worked and many had terrible side effects including painful rashes, breathing problems and a soaring heart rate.
Some conventional treatments made her lose her appetite all together while others made her gain so much weight her devastated parents found it hard to lift her.
Mother-of-two Miss Siery, said: 'Prescribed drugs made her blood vessels swell and burst in her face.
'Her throat swelled and she needed a feeding tube. It felt hopeless - all these horrible drugs and side effects, yet still 60 horrific seizures a day.
'It was very difficult. You just want to take your new baby home and enjoy them, but we couldn’t do that.'
But while researching other options, Larisa’s father Mr Rule, a painter and decorator, heard other children like Larisa had been helped by marijuana.
Full-time carer Miss Siery asked her doctors about medical cannabis but after they laughed at her she took to the internet to find a supplier on the internet.
Now a man called Peter sends them 250ml of cannabis tincture a month - a liquid made by soaking the cannabis flowers, leaves, or stems in ethyl alcohol to create a medicine.
He does not charge for the medicine - which Larisa has been taking in her bottles since December - and only supplies to the parents of poorly children.
Miss Siery said: 'We’d watch helplessly as she suffered up to 60 seizures a day, some lasting as long as an hour.
'But the first day Larisa had the cannabis tincture, she went from 60 seizures to five, and they only lasted one minute. 'She was more alert, she could move about, she had an appetite.
'The difference is it has given her a life which she never had. She is awake more, we’ve got her off the opiate medication, and we have had to go to hospital since we tried it.
'She also hasn’t suffered any more brain damage.'
But her 'dealer' has been charged with cultivating and growing marijuana and is due in court next month, where he could be given a prison sentence.
Desperate Miss Siery faces having to find another way to get the medicine for her daughter - or watch her go back to having 60 seizures a day.
'Without him, there are 200 families like us who will be without our medicine,' she said.
'I don’t know what we’ll do if he goes to prison.
'If we can’t keep accessing cannabis tincture it means that Larisa’s seizures will kill her.
'Giving our daughter marijuana is the best option. It’s our only hope.'
Culled from iBTIIMES
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