Doctors Claim Tragic Infant Death was Linked to Cannabis Exposure
Colorado doctors, Dr. Thomas M. Nappe and Dr. Christopher O. Hoyte, released a controversial case report claiming that an 11-month-old infant’s tragic fatal case of myocarditis, or an inflamed heart muscle, was due to cannabis exposure. The case report, Pediatric Death Due to Myocarditis After Exposure to Cannabis, has raised many eyebrows from people in the cannabis industry who are alarmed by the study’s implications.
The study’s authors are based at the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center in Denver, Colorado. According to the report, THC was found in the infant’s blood and urine after the infant succumbed to a seizure, followed by cardiac arrest. The authors pointed out three cases where cannabis was suspected of myocarditis.
“To date, pediatric deaths from cannabis exposure have not been reported,” the report stated. “The authors report an 11-month-old male who, following cannabis exposure, presented with central nervous system depression after seizure, and progressed to cardiac arrest and died. Myocarditis was diagnosed post-mortem and cannabis exposure was confirmed. Given the temporal relationship of these two rare occurrences—cannabis exposure and sudden death secondary to myocarditis in an 11-month-old—as well as histological consistency with drug-induced myocarditis without confirmed alternate causes, and prior reported cases of cannabis-associated myocarditis, a possible relationship exists between cannabis exposure in this child and myocarditis leading to death.”
The results are not conclusive, skeptics have pointed out. Dr. Noah Kaufman, a Colorado-based emergency medicine specialist, told BFBB “I’m gonna have to call BS on this one.” Kaufman argued that myocarditis is caused by infection, and rarely caused by drugs. Cannabis, by contrast, has been attributed many times to the reduction of seizures for various other illnesses.
Dr. Nappe swiftly reacted to the surge of headlines. “We are absolutely not saying that marijuana killed that child,” Thomas Nappe told the Washington Post after the story went viral. The study’s authors confirmed that they haven’t proven that cannabis caused the myocarditis.
Most states with legal cannabis, such as Colorado, continue to strengthen regulations to prevent minors from getting into cannabis. However, it is ultimately up to parents, caregivers and guardians to ensure cannabis is safely stored and secured away from minors.
