Proof. Consider the set $P \subset G$ consisting of all geodesics in $G \setminus A$ that begin from $\partial A$ (the boundary of $A$, i.e. elements adjacent to $A$ but not inside it), in the component of $h$. Write $P_n$ for the set of nodes first reached by some geodesic in $P$ after exactly $n$ steps. Since every translate of $A$ splits $G$ into at least three components, it is easy to show that for some $\alpha > 1$, we have $|P_n| \geq \alpha^n$ for all large enough $n$. For all $g \in P_n$, fix a geodesic representation $w_g \in S^n$, representing a the path from some element $e_g \in \partial A$ to $G$$g$ arbitrarily.
Now pick $h'$ in $G \setminus A$ in $P_m$ for large $m$. Suppose that for all $g \in P_n$, the set $g(h')^{-1}A$ intersects the range of the geodesic $w_g$ (in the obvious sense of partial products starting from $e_n$). Then, intuitively, we can use this fact to compress the information in the paths in $P_n$. More precisely, if $g \in P_n$ then $g = g'a^{-1}h'$ for some $a \in A$ where $g'$ lies on the range of $w_g$. Because $h' \in P_m$ has word norm at least $m - |e_g|$ and $w_g$ is a geodesic, $g'$ must be in $P_{n-m+k}$ where $k \in [-3r,3r]$ where $r$ is the maximal word norm among elements of $A$. This meansIn particular, the distance of $g$ from $\partial A$ is reduced by at least $m-3r$ when we multiply it by a suitable $h^{-1}a$. We can now describe any element of $P_n$ by listing the at most $\lceil n/(m-3r) \rceil$ elements $a^{-1}$$a$, encountered when iteratively applying this observation, starting from $g$, and listing also the element of $P_{n'}$ for $n' < m+3r$ obtained in the end. Now, $C |S|^{m+3r+1} |A|^{\lceil n/(m-r) \rceil}$ (where $C |S|^{m+3r}$ is an upper bound for the number of elements obtained in the end, $C$ is the boundary size of $A$) has slower asymptotic growth in $n$ than $\alpha^n$, as soon as $|A|^{1/(m-3r)} < \alpha$, a contradiction if $m$ was picked large enough.
Edit: The axial part had a chirality issue. That's what you get for trying to be fast, I should maybe just have drawn a picture. Fixed some typos as well.