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Cancer-Stricken Amish Girl in Hiding After Court Demands She Must Have Chemotherapy

By Cheri Cheng | Update Date: Nov 30, 2013 11:02 AM EST

A cancer-stricken Amish girl has gone into hiding in order to avoid chemotherapy treatment. A court in Ohio ruled that all medical decisions pertaining to Sarah Hershberger's cancer treatment would fall onto medical professionals and not Sarah's parents, who stopped the chemotherapy treatment even though the treatment was successfully killing Sarah's cancer.

For several months, Sarah who is 11-years-old, has lived with cancer. When she was first diagnosed with Leukemia in April, her parents had taken her to the Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio where she was to start chemotherapy treatment. Sarah had lymphoblastic lymphoma, which is an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Her doctors had stated that Sarah's survival rate was high with treatment.

After roughly three months, Sarah's parents stopped her chemotherapy treatment because the side effects were making the young girl ill. Despite the nasty side effects, doctors stated that the treatment, which was supposed to last two years, was effective in reducing the sizes of the tumors located in her neck, chest and kidneys.

"We've seen how sick it makes her," Sarah's father, Andy Hershberger stated back in August according to ABC News. "Our belief is the natural stuff will do jut as much as that stuff if it's God's will."

When the parents stopped Sarah's chemotherapy treatment, the hospital fought to gain control over the child's medical treatment. The court sided with the hospital a month ago and gave the power to make medical decisions for Sarah to a guardian. However, before the ruling was revealed, the family left the state and headed for a natural cancer treatment center located in Central America. According to the New York Daily News, the family has returned to the Untied States but is still in hiding in order to avoid the appeals court's ruling that took the power away from Sarah's parents.

According to the family's lawyer, Maurice Thompson, the holistic treatments are helping Sarah's condition. The doctors at the children's hospital, however, stated that without chemotherapy, Sarah could die within a year.

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