Doctors: 11-month-old Denver boy’s death likely related to marijuana
An 11-month-old Colorado boy’s death from a heart condition was likely related to ingestion of marijuana, two Denver doctors have concluded, but the precise link remains unclear.
The boy’s death was first reported in a study published last year about kids’ emergency room visits following marijuana legalization. The boy, who was not identified in that study, arrived at the hospital unresponsive and with a rapid heart beat, and he later went into cardiac arrest and died. He had no known history of health problems.
The boy tested positive for THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana. But, at the time, the researcher on the original study said he was unsure whether that was related to the boy’s death.
But, in a new case report published this year, two doctors from the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center reveal more information about the boy’s death, while drawing a more direct line between his heart condition and the THC in his system.
Young marijuana cuttings grow in the clone room Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016, at the commercial grow facility for Strawberry Fields in Colorado Springs. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)