Medical Marijuana Poster Child Charlotte Figi Dies From Complications 'Likely Related To Coronavirus'

Charlotte Figi, the child with epilepsy who ignited the medical marijuana movement several years ago, has died on Tuesday, April 7.

Her mother, Paige Figi, confirmed in a Facebook post that Charlotte had a seizure on Tuesday morning. She then succumbed to respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.

The 13-year-old was previously in the hospital and was treated as a "likely COVID-19 case." The entire Figi family has been showing symptoms of coronavirus since early March, but the teenager's condition worsened; thus, she was admitted to the pediatric ICU on April 3.

Paige said that Charlotte was designated on the hospital floor that treated COVID-19 cases. As her test turned out negative for COVID-19, she was discharged from the hospital on April 5 Paige said that Charlotte was doing fine until her seizure on the morning of April 7.

"Given our family’s month-long history with illness and despite the negative test results, she was treated as a likely COVID-19 case," Charlotte's mom wrote. "Her fighting spirit held out as long as it could and she eventually passed in our arms peacefully."

Charlotte's death, however, is not in Colorado's official COVID-19 numbers.

"While we cannot speak to specific individual cases, there are no confirmed pediatric COVID-19 deaths in El Paso County," a county spokesperson said.

The Figi family owns and runs the Colorado Springs medical marijuana dispensary. Together with the Stanley brothers, they created a type of cannabis strain that had high CBC concentration and a low THC component that makes cannabis psychoactive.

Charlotte used this cannabis concoction, dubbed Charlotte's Web, to manage her epileptic seizures as she suffered from Dravet syndrome since she was three months old. Her parents sought this alternative treatment after failing to get some help from pharmaceutical treatments and looking into the therapeutic benefits of CBD.

The teenager's case has become the central subject of various medical literature for treating conditions with marijuana. She was also the subject of the documentary "Weed" from Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent.

"Charlotte changed the world. She certainly changed my world and my mind. She opened my eyes to the possibility of cannabis being a legitimate medicine," Gupta wrote in his tribute to Charlotte.