Missing Ariz. girl with leukemia could die if not found

Surveillance video captured an 11-year-old leukemia patient and her mother walking out of a Phoenix hospital before she was discharged. / Phoenix Children's Hospital/KPHO

PHOENIX Authorities in Arizona say a young girl with leukemia and a heart catheter could die if she is not brought back to a Phoenix hospital after her parents inexplicably removed her from the facility last week.

Phoenix police are asking anyone with information to come forward with any information about the patient, who is being called Emily, and her parents, who are being called Norma and Luis. Health privacy laws prevent them from releasing their names.

The 11-year-old girl had been receiving chemotherapy at Phoenix Children's Hospital for about a month, Phoenix police Sgt. Steve Martos said.

• Search for girl with cancer who walked away from Arizona hospital with mom

Martos said an infection forced doctors to amputate her right arm and insert a heart catheter. The device was set to be taken out on Thursday. Her mother removed an IV from the girl, changed her clothes and walked her out of the hospital Wednesday night.

Surveillance video shows Emily, her mother and her brother getting into a 1998 Ford minivan, which is driven away by somebody else, CBS affiliate KPHO in Phoenix, Ariz. reports.

Martos said the family lives a "nomadic" life without a permanent residence, but they have relatives in Arizona, California and Mexico, none of whom have been able to provide police with information about their whereabouts. Authorities don't know why the child's parents took her from the hospital, but speculate they might have been concerned with paying the bill.

The girl's father is a Mexican citizen with a U.S. resident alien identification card. The child and her mother are U.S. citizens, Martos said.

While it is not against the law for a parent to remove their daughter or son from a hospital, it is breaking the law if the child needs medical attention for a life-threatening situation, KPHO said. Neither parent has been charged with a rime yet.

Martos says the catheter could cause a deadly heart infection if not removed properly or left in too long.

"We're talking about 11-year old girl who can't take care of herself," Martos said to KPHO.

[littleleers]

Maybe the dad was afraid of deportation. Who knows,it says the family lives a nomadic life and that spells trouble in every way for a child, cancer or no cancer.

[MarketingGrrl]

NO it does not. Living a normadic life is just different not troublesome. More often then not it can be a more loving family then one living in a city such as Los Angeles where public schools are day care centers and elementary schools for a life of crime and poverty.

[adzmmom]

Many parents of children with cancer feel that dr's cause more harm than good. These parents are obviously choosing quality of lifeovr quality. This child is NOT missing she is with her family. They obviously did not make this decision lightly

[makemyday2da]

ADZMMOM - you're saying "many parents" think this way? WRONG! MOST parents would do everything they could to HELP their child, NOT endanger their lives! This is exactly what Emily's 'parents' have done to her. Did you not read the entire story? She already doesn't have much "quality of life" since her parents' basically live out of their car. They are TERRIBLE parents!

[Henry_Major]

Or they are choosing death