KIMMELL, Ind. -- A Faith Assembly church member has died of breast cancer -- the 58th documented death within the faith-healing sect that refuses all medical treatment, officials reported Wednesday.
Martha Nei, 51, had refused medical treatment since she detected a lump on her left breast in 1981, Noble County Coroner Dr. John Ramsey said. She died early Tuesday.
Mrs. Nei and her husband, Donald, were members of Faith Assembly, the Noble County-based church that preaches reliance on faith in God for healing.
Ramsey said that cancer had spread throughout Mrs. Nei's body by the time of her death.
'She must have been in incredible pain,' he told the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. 'This poor woman must have endured the tortures of the damned.'
Mrs. Nei's death was the 58th documented by the News-Sentinel of a member or dependent of Faith Assembly who followed the church's teachings against medical care. The sect is based on farmland near Wilmot, Ind., that was donated in 1979 by Donald Nei.
The News-Sentinel said the total of Faith Assembly dead includes 39 children.
Ramsey said that, while it is impossible to predict if Mrs. Nei could have been cured with modern medical techniques, her suffering could have been reduced and her cancer might have responded to treatment.
Faith Assembly, headed by the Rev. Hobart Freeman, preaches what many consider a mainline fundamentalist Christian doctrine, but also enforces Scripture-based reliance on faith alone to cure illnesses. Members are not allowed to seek medical care, wear glasses or even buy insurance.
State Rep. Bob Alderman, R-Fort Wayne, Wednesday unveiled proposed changes in state law designed to allow courts and prosecutors to intervene to save dangerously ill dependents of Faith Assembly members.
But the new laws, if they were in effect now, still would not have applied to Mrs. Nei's case because she freely chose to reject medical care, officials said.
Donald Nei's previous wife, Betty Nei, 56, died Jan. 14, 1981 of untreated pneumonia that doctors said could have been successfully cured. He married Martha Nei after she had already discovered her cancer.
