Sarah Hershberger, second from right, is pictured at her family’s roadside stand in Homer Township on Sept. 24. Also pictured are her father and three of her siblings. (PHOTO PROVIDED BY 1851 CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL LAW)
Posted on 10/04/2015 10:43:28 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
A Columbus attorney has announced that a 12-year-old Amish girl is cancer-free, despite courtroom testimony last year from doctors that she would be dead in six months without chemotherapy treatments.
Maurice Thompson, the executive director for the libertarian nonprofit 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, said the girl, Sarah Hershberger, shows no signs of cancer and appears to be healthy.
Sarah Hershberger, second from right, is pictured at her family’s roadside stand in Homer Township on Sept. 24. Also pictured are her father and three of her siblings. (PHOTO PROVIDED BY 1851 CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL LAW)
“She had MRIs and blood work, and the judge over the last year helped facilitate at least one trip to the Cleveland Clinic. The MRIs did not show any cancer,” Thompson told The Gazette on Friday.
He said the family will continue to treat the girl with less invasive, alternative medicine.
“Once you have it, you’re never 100 percent out of the woods, whether or not you get chemotherapy,” he said. “I know how she looks isn’t really an indication of whether she has cancer, but she’s looking very healthy.”
When Sarah was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, her parents accepted chemo treatment for her at Akron Children’s Hospital. But Andy and Anna Hershberger, of Homer Township, said they felt the treatments were killing their daughter and ceased her treatments.
Akron Children’s Hospital responded by filing in Medina County Probate Court to obtain “limited guardianship” of the girl, which would grant them the power to make medical decisions for the girl. That’s when doctors testified Sarah would die without chemo treatment.
Probate Judge John J. Lohn, who has since retired, at first ruled the girl’s parents were competent to make their own decisions about their daughter’s health. The case then bounced between probate and appellate courts before Lohn was ordered to appoint a guardian.
Sarah’s family responded by fleeing the country last year to seek alternative treatment in Mexico and Canada. Months later, the hospital relinquished its guardianship.
Thompson said Probate Judge Kevin Dunn — who replaced Lohn when he retired in 2014 — formally terminated Sarah’s guardianship on Sept. 24. Thompson said the judge acknowledged that Sarah, who will turn 13 in November, showed no symptoms of cancer and that she appeared to be healthy.
When contacted by The Gazette several times this week, a spokesperson for Dunn said the judge had not yet prepared a journal entry regarding the hearing and she declined to confirm any of the events at the hearing. The entry is expected early next week.
In the wake of Sarah’s case, Thompson called on lawmakers to reform Ohio’s laws that grant judges the power to overrule parental decisions regarding their children’s health and wellbeing.
“It is now time for Ohio’s legislators to protect Ohio families from wayward judges,” the attorney said.
He criticized the legal test that judges relied on in the Hershberger case in order to supersede the Hershbergers’ decision to stop chemotherapy treatments.
“This test allows county judges to overrule health care, educational and other important decisions of suitable Ohio parents,” Thompson said. “In the wake of Sarah’s case, the concept came to be known as ‘medical kidnapping.’ ”
Akron Children’s Hospital declined on Thursday to comment on Thompson’s accusations.
A spokesperson said, however, that the hospital has established a committee with the Amish community to facilitate better communication regarding healthcare in the wake of Sarah’s case.
“Family-centered care has long been a tenet at Akron Children’s Hospital. Our caregivers strive every day to involve parents in decision making and to respect the cultural differences of our patient families,” the spokesperson said. “We have been updated periodically by Sarah’s family members through this committee and wish Sarah continued good health.”
Bad news for the Nanny-Staters.
Unusual on FR: She really is Amish!
This should be made into a movie. The extent a family has to go to in this day and age, when your opinion does not agree with Big Hospital or the bureaucrats. They took a risk removing her from Chemo, but I hear some people suffer more severely than others. Luckily, the NSA is too busy spying on and protecting groups like BLM to keep pursuing this family. The kids all look like their dad.
Why is a probate dealing with a girl who hasn’t died yet?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probate_court
A probate court (also called a surrogate court) is a specialized court that deals with matters of probate and the administration of estates.
Probate courts administer proper distribution of the assets of a decedent (one who has died), adjudicates the validity of wills, enforces the provisions of a valid will (by issuing the grant of probate), prevents malfeasance by executors and administrators of estates, and provides for the equitable distribution of the assets of persons who die intestate (without a valid will), such as by granting a grant of administration giving judicial approval to the personal representative to administer matters of the estate.
In contested matters, a probate court examines the authenticity of a will and decides who is to receive the deceased person’s property. In a case of an intestacy, the court determines who is to receive the deceased’s property under the law of its jurisdiction. The probate court will then oversee the process of distributing the deceased’s assets to the proper beneficiaries. In some jurisdictions, such courts are also referred to as Orphans’ Courts, or courts of ordinary. Not all jurisdictions have probate courts, in many places, probate functions are performed by a chancery court or another court of equity.
The surrogate court can be petitioned by interested parties in an estate, such as when a beneficiary feels that an estate is being mishandled. The court has the authority to compel an executor to give an account of their actions.
What the hell? Excuse me? "Involve"?
Parent's should just be "involved" in decision-making, they should be the ones responsible for the decisions made!
The arrogance of the medical establishment is breathtaking and it is a very big reason why nationalized health care is a recipe for misery, suffering, and enslavement mentally AND physical.
The medical establishment has a vested interest in fomenting a state of fear among Americans. It spends billions on mass media marketing campaigns to do just that. It failed to work on the Amish because the Amish understand that mass media is self-serving and manipulative.
I cannot imagine too many things more horrible than being forced to undergo such medical treatments without the support of your family around you, and after being forcibly ripped from their protection. That would have been irreversibly traumatizing for that young girl. I heard of a young cancer patient who called her treatments “red Kool aid” or “Orange Kool Aid,” depending on what product she was receiving. Her mother said it helped her to see the treatments as friendly and helpful. This girl would have never been able to make the connection of the treatments being helpful and therefore they would have been fruitless.
Glory to God, fantastic news. So what exactly happened in Canada and Mexico?
I’m pretty sure that Terri Schiavo’s case was argued in probate court. She wasn’t dead until Greer ordered her execution.
The local governments here seem to interfere with the Amish on a regular basis.I live in Sullivan township which is the next township west of Homer.A few years ago the Ashland county sheriff put an Amish man in jail in a dispute over an outhouse.They wanted him to install a septic system and he refused.My position is just leave them alone,they’re not hurting anyone.In fact they make wonderful neighbors.
When the real persecution starts, they will disappear first.
This is like what happened to Justina Pelletier last year in Massachusetts. The hospital kidnapped her and refused to let her parents even see her. The hospital darn near killed the girl with a totally inappropriate treatment. Google it for a real WTF moment.
We still live in the dark ages. And the superstitious ones are the ones whose god is junk science.
Sounds like a case of medical billing fraud. There is huge money in treating cancer and the local doctors in collusion with the hospital may have provided treatment for no other reason than money. Wouldn’t be the first time.
Parents should have gone to the Cleveland Clinic for a second opinion as soon as the doctor “diagnosed cancer”.
Major cancer centers, especially those associated with large state universities will give an honest diagnosis and offer up the latest and greatest treatment plans and clinical trials.
I am fortunate to live in the Houston area and get my treatment at MD Anderson.
I’m currently doing Gerson Therapy, and a couple of other complementary treatments, for my cancer. Gerson has a center in Mexico so perhaps that. Essiac is made in Canada, so that may be the case there.
FYI: chemo kills! Whodathunk?
Having been by my wife’s side for two cancers, you are NEVER cancer free. In the words of her oncologist “you’re cancer free when you die at 90 of a heart attack”.
Our friend and Pastor beat his colon cancer last year using an alternative, now he is fighting Liver cancer using the same alternative, but this time the VA hospital system is taking him serious and following his progress.
Huge amounts of Bitter Apricot Kernels, organic Apricots, his own saliva, and prayer.
In 90 days the VA will do another PET scan to see how he is doing.
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