Girl’s Forced Treatment Ends; Cancer Terminal
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Doctors treating 14-year-old Pamela Hamilton, the preacher’s daughter who underwent court-ordered cancer treatments, said Friday that her newest tumors are terminal and recommended “no further treatment.”
Dr. Frank Haraf discussed Pamela’s case with cancer experts from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and they determined it would be futile to try chemotherapy or radiation again.
“Consultation between Dr. Haraf and St. Jude Hospital has been completed. They are in agreement that Pamela’s tumors are not curable,” said Pat Kelly, a spokeswoman for the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.
Pamela first underwent treatment in September, 1983, after the state sued her parents for custody. Larry and Deborah Hamilton are members of the Church of God of the Union Assembly, a fundamentalist sect that forbids the use of medicine.
A tumor in Pamela’s left thigh bone had grown to the size of a football at the time that Campbell County Juvenile Court Judge Charles Herman ordered treatment.
Chemotherapy and radiation caused the leg tumor to disappear a year later, and doctors hoped that it might not reappear.
But tests performed in a checkup in Knoxville last week disclosed the presence of new tumors in Pamela’s lungs and on her back.
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