Sally Schaeffer said her 7-year-old daughter, Lydia, could light up a room with her smile.
But that smile started to fade after Lydia was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was 18 months old.
The seizures only happened when Lydia was asleep and were not visible to the human eye.
Schaeffer said the medication her daughter was prescribed stopped the seizures temporarily, but produced terrible side effects.
“They made her into a totally different person. She would sleep 15 hours in a row. She would not want to perform at school or therapies,” said Sally Schaeffer.
Seeing her daughter struggle led Lydia Schaeffer to research other options, including an extract of marijuana called cannabidiol, or CBD, which is used to treat seizures.
Schaeffer spent three months lobbying to get CBD legalized in Wisconsin.
In April, Schaeffer and her family, along with others who fought for CBD’s legalization, stood by Gov. Scott Walker as he signed the bill legalizing the extract into law.
But Walker’s signature didn’t happen soon enough for Lydia. She died in her sleep on Mother’s Day.
