OH Amish Girl and Family Missing After They Refuse Her Chemotherapy
An Amish family not wanting to treat their 10-year-old daughter's leukemia in the traditional way is reportedly on the run and may have left the U.S. in order to avoid treatment.
Andy and Anna Hershberger allegedly took their daughter, Sarah, and left their home in Ohio in order to avoid treating Sarah's leukemia with chemotherapy and radiation. The sheriff's office is not actively looking for the family, who was last seen this past summer.
"It would take a court order for us to get involved, and I'm not anticipating a court order," County Sheriff Tom Miller told The Gazette.
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While the family was initially accepting of the traditional treatment in April, they soon decided to use natural medicine. The Hershbergers were not pleased with the effects the chemotherapy had on Sarah and stopped treatment in accordance with her wishes.
"It put her down for two days," Andy previously told the Associated Press. "She was not like her normal self. We just thought we cannot do this to her. Our belief is, to a certain extent, we can use modern medicine, but at some times we have to stop it and do something else."
After starting her on a regimen of natural herbs and medicines, Sarah was making progress and returning to her old self, Andy said.
"We see her every day. We watch her really close. She runs, plays … she crawls up ladders. She's got a lot of energy, more than she had when she was doing chemo. We told them (Akron Children's Hospital) if it gets to the point that we cannot do anything for her, we would come back," he explained.
Yet Akron Children's Hospital decided to appoint a registered nurse as Sarah's temporary guardian when it comes to medical decisions. Maria Schimer, a registered nurse and attorney was appointed guardian but said through her attorney that she has no idea where the Hershbergers are.
"All I know is that she and her parents don't seem to be at her house," Clair Dickinson told The Gazette.
