How Pot Helped this Autistic, Epileptic Child Go From Blank Stares to Loving Hugs
The following article first appeared in The Hemp Connoisseur Magazine. Find The Hemp Connoisseur on Facebook here.
Chrissy Hetrick-Leonard is a mother of three and a nurse. Her fulltime job is caring for her oldest child, an 11-year-old girl with multiple health challenges. Those challenges are daunting and include Cornelia de Lang Syndrome, Dandy Walker Syndrome, autism, epileptic seizures, hip dysplasia, and other maladies.
“It’s hard having an oldest child with a laundry list of ailments,” Chrissy says, sharing the trauma experienced by untold parents in similar situations.
“Her seizures six months ago were not very controlled, resulting in paralysis of her body,” she says, adding that her reason for trying alternative medicine was that, quite simply, traditional medicine wasn’t working.
Chrissy emotionally recalls the blank stares and lack of eye contact from Tehya, her daughter. “The seizures were very hard on her body, to the point of breaking bones.”
In addition to the “shot in the dark” and ineffective mainstream treatments, tests confirmed that her daughter’s cognitive abilities were generally that of a 2-year-old.
After years of frustration with pharmaceutical drugs and conventional therapies, Chrissy turned to RiverRock Wellness and Tony Verzura’s proprietary program called A.C.T. Now. RiverRock’s Verzura has been assertively promoting cannabis as superior medicine, but did it do anything for Chrissy’s daughter?
Do you believe in miracles?
The A.C.T. Now program has nearly eliminated the seizures suffered by Chrissy’s daughter, which are at most one per month. It has improved her cognitive function test results by 200 percent, and reduced her paralysis by 80 to 90 percent. She no longer uses any pharmaceutical drugs.
“Within the first week, I saw her come out of almost like a closet,” Chrissy says. “I got eye contact, direct smiles at me … The improvement after six months is mind blowing.” Chrissy developed a wall board to assist in communicating with her daughter. After months talking through pictures, by hitting a button for audio descriptions of the picture, to now walking up to the board and indicating her desire to say something, her daughter is alive as never before.
Tehya is learning to communicate using an eye-tracking device called Tobii, which will give her the ability to control her environment for the first time. And Tehya no longer babbles “mama,” she calls her mother “mama” with a purpose.
For 11 years, Chrissy’s daughter wouldn’t hug her. She does now. “All I’m waiting for are those ‘I Love You’ words,” she says, holding back tears. “Then I’ll be complete.” This amazing result was achieved within five months utilizing the full spectrum of cannabinoids. It may have not been possible if she had been restricted to CBD-only medication.
Since 2009, RiverRock Wellness has successfully served over 15,000 patients per year, and currently cultivate hundreds of medical grade cannabis strains, including more than 15 unique CBD dominant varieties. Verzura’s proprietary full spectrum cannabinoid program A.C.T. Now currently manages over 200 sponsored patients suffering from: chronic pain, drug abuse, inflammation, glaucoma, PTSD, neuropathy, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, Crohn’s Disease, seizures, epilepsy, paralysis, autoimmune, autism, tumors, HIV/AIDS, and many types of cancer (or multiple types of cancer) as well.
The A.C.T Now Program is not an approved FDA treatment for cancer.
