Ohio Amish Girl With Leukemia Sarah Hershberger & Family Leave Country To Avoid Chemotherapy
A 10-year-old Amish girl with leukemia and her parents have fled the country in order to find alternatives to chemotherapy, according to reports.
The young girl named Sarah Hershberger and her parents are against chemotherapy and in turn have been battling the Akron Children's Hospital in court. The hospital took the Hershbergers to court in July after the family stopped Sarah's treatment to fight the cancer.
Doctors at the Akron hospital believe that without chemotherapy, the young girl, who had tumors on her neck, chest and kidneys, doesn't have a chance of survival.
In their defense, the family said the chemotherapy caused their daughter pain and are seeking a natural remedy in its replacement. Sarah complained that the chemotherapy made her sick and tired.
"We've seen how sick it makes her," Andy Hershberger, her father, told ABC News in August. "Our belief is the natural stuff will do just as much as that stuff if it's God's will."
He also said: "If we do chemotherapy and she would happen to die, she would probably suffer more than if we would do it this way and she would happen to die."
The family left their home in Ohio days after an October appeals court ruling appointed a registered nurse as a guardian to make medical decisions for Sarah instead of her parents.
However, according to Hershberger's attorney, the family has every right to oppose treatment.
"It's the constitutional right, but [there's a] moral right to refuse conventional medical treatment," Maurice Thompson, told ABC News on Wednesday. "Sarah's condition has gotten a lot better since the family has been pursuing the alternative treatment."
The Hershberger's whereabouts are currently unknown and at this point there aren't any searches for Sarah.