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The family has appealed the decision to both the appeals court and the Ohio Supreme Court. They also plan to file a motion to terminate the guardianship.

They have not had any contact with the guardian since the ruling, said Clair Dickinson, the guardian’s attorney.

A taxi was sent to the family’s home nearly two months ago after the guardian was appointed to take the Sarah to the hospital in Akron, but someone at the home said the family was not there, Dickinson said.

‘I’m very concerned about her’

There are no plans to ask the court to find the family or force the girl into chemotherapy while the case is being appealed, he said.

He said Sarah’s last known chemotherapy session was in June, and that doctors have said she could die within a year if treatments don’t resume.

“I’m very concerned about her,” he said.

Thompson said the girl has undergone alternative-therapy treatments and is doing well. The family told him that she has more energy and that CT scans show the treatments are working.

Andy Hershberger, the girl’s father, said this past summer that the family agreed to begin two years of treatments for Sarah last spring but stopped a second round of chemotherapy in June because it was making her extremely sick.

Sarah begged her parents to stop the chemo and they agreed after a great deal of prayer, Hershberger said. The family, members of an insular Amish community, shuns many facets of modern life and is deeply religious. They live on a farm and operate a produce stand near the village of Spencer in Medina County, about 35 miles southwest of Cleveland.

Hospital officials have said they are morally and legally obligated to make sure the girl receives proper care. They said the girl’s illness, lymphoblastic lymphoma, is an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but there is a high survival rate with treatment.

The Associated Press