rebelling against low expectations

Abraham Cherrix: Victory

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Abraham Cherrix embraces family friend, Sharon Smith, this morning as his mother, Rose, looks on. (Photo Source: Steve Helber/AP)

The Cherrix family and county social workers have reached an agreement that will allow Abraham to forego chemotherapy treatment. The Associated Press reports:

“It’s all over. It’s everything we fought for, everything we wanted to ever have, we’ve won. We got our freedom back,” Abraham said outside the courthouse after the hearing.Under the decree, the Chincoteague 16-year-old will be treated by an oncologist of his choice who is board-certified in radiation therapy and interested in alternative treatments. The family must provide the court updates on Abraham’s treatment and condition every three months until he’s cured, or turns 18, whichever comes first.

Tyler emphasized that the decree states that the parents weren’t medically neglectful.

After the short hearing, the judge looked at Abraham and said, “God bless you, Mr. Cherrix.”

The article also contains the news that Abraham’s recent visit with a doctor resulted in a optimistic assessment of his cancer’s curability.

Abraham said that he saw the doctor last week, and the doctor assured him that his cancer is curable.

The teen said he’ll continue following an alternative herbal treatment called the Hoxsey method as well as his doctor’s treatment plan. The regimen won’t include chemotherapy, but radiation is a possibility, he said.

Praise God for His continued hand on Abraham’s life. Let us not forget him and his family as he continues on the path to recovery. Keep this young man in your prayers.

For full coverage of the Abraham Cherrix story, click here.

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About the author

Alex and Brett Harris

are the co-founders of TheRebelution.com and co-authors of Do Hard Things and Start Here. They have a passion for God and for their generation. Their personal interests include politics, filmmaking, music, and basketball. They are both graduates of Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia.

15 comments

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  • Edited by Siteowner: Dear Machinator, thank you for commenting. Unfortunately, your comment has been removed for failing to comply with this blog’s comment guidelines. Please refer to them for future reference.

    Thanks for understanding. God bless!

  • I hope that this treatment works for Mr. Cherrix-it would really show that alternative remedies can heal. Did you see him on the news this evening?

    BTW: R.C. Sproul Jr. also has Hodgkins Lymphoma…

  • That is great news. I have actually talked to Abraham’s mother. You see, I work for a christian based, natural healing company that also has a radio show. I am the producer of the show and when I saw this story, I knew we had to try to help in anyway we could, so I set up an interview with his mother. Although they decided not to go the same route as we recommended, we are very glad that chemo is out of the picture. That stuff is horrible. Praise God for this news!

    If you are interested, you can check out the health company here: http://www.DanielChapterOne.com

    (I hope I have not infringed on any rules by including that website link. If I have, please forgive me and feel free to edit my post to remove the link.)

  • My son has ALL (Acute lymphblastic Leukemia) and is 16. He knows God is in control and is taking his meds and has been such a light to me and others during this ordeal. We too would rather go a holistic way but him being a minor, well, you know. I’m glad to hear of this victory in the courts. Isn’t it amazing a young adult that does something wrong can be charged as an adult, yet when wanting to do something right, they are treated as a child. We chose to go along to get along just to save us the anguish and fear of not only losing him but the rest of our children to the courts. That is so sad. I would love to hear of an update on his condition.

  • I was in treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the same time that this court case was going on. It was very heartbreaking that on top of the stress of fighting for his life, this young man had to come into the national spotlight and have his family’s health decisions called into question. The non-holistic treatment I received was awful and has left me with permanent side effects, but I stand by it – I am alive. Hodgkin’s has a 90% cure rate with these methods and I haven’t had a recurrence, unlike Mr. Cherrix, who as far as I can tell, had 3 relapses.

    Treatment options are completely a person’s own decision to make, but until you yourself have been faced with this disease, it is self-righteous and rude to claim that one decision over another is has God’s approval. When you are faced with death at an early age, it’s confusing and upsetting enough without having strangers – who have never had cancer – tell you that you are doing the wrong thing and even mistrusting God because of a medical choice you made. I don’t care how much you believe in a particular treatment. Unless you have had the same disease and were cured by the methodology you support, you have no right to force it on someone without empirical data supporting your argument.

    Yes – God is in control. He also created the people who discovered the different medical treatments for various cancers. One of the drugs in my chemotherapy regimen was derived from red flowers that grow only in France. I found it very difficult to communicate with many of my Christian peers who were of the opinion that trusting God meant using only “natural” or “holistic” treatments. It would have been EXCELLENT to be “healed” miraculously or through a pain-free regimen, and I’m not glad that it was so difficult. But I can say with complete confidence that I have a new appreciation for the suffering Christ endured for my soul, and I do not believe that submitting to medical treatment is mutually exclusive from trusting God.

    The courts were not Abraham Cherrix’s enemy; they weren’t forcing him to get chemotherapy so he would die. The were fighting for the life of a child based on empirical evidence that the treatment prescribed by his doctor was his best chance at living a long life. I hate to say it, but with cancer, nobody wins. Even if you survive there are terrible scars. I would just encourage you to listen before preaching at someone with cancer. They are doing the best they can. It might make YOU feel better to tell them about some random treatment going on in Mexico, but trust me: unsolicited advice has the capability of making them feel much worse.

rebelling against low expectations

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