Doc: MN boy resisting chemo will likely die

Click here to read the court petition.

NEW ULM, Minn. -- A 13-year-old boy who is resisting chemotherapy for cancer will likely die without the treatment, his doctor testified Friday.

Daniel Hauser, of Sleepy Eye, is at the center of a legal struggle in which Brown County authorities accuse his parents of medical neglect. He suffers from Hodgkin's lymphoma, a highly curable form of cancer.

After Daniel stopped chemotherapy after a single treatment, opting instead for "alternative medicines," child protection workers went to court requesting custody.

Doctors had recommended six chemo treatments, followed by radiation. Dr. Bruce Bostrom, a pediatric oncologist at Childrens Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and Daniel's treating physician, on Friday estimated the risk of death from forgoing treatment at about 95 percent. And he testified that Daniel's tumor had grown since he underwent one chemotherapy treatment in February.

"What is the ultimate outcome of that process?" Tom Sinas, an attorney for the guardian ad litem, asked of the tumor's growth.

"Death," Bostrom replied.

Attorneys for Daniel and his parents, Colleen and Anthony Hauser, asked Bostrom about various side effects of chemotherapy, including lowered immunity, secondary forms of cancer, fatigue and infertility.

"In my opinion the benefits of treatment far outweigh the risks of treatment," Bostrom testified.

Daniel's mother, Colleen, testified that she approved of using western medicine during a life threatening emergency, such as a heart attack, but she said that did not apply. "My son is not in any medical danger at this point," she said.

She testified that she only approved the first round of chemotherapy because she felt pressured and intimidated by doctors. When it was done, she said, Daniel felt terrible, "beyond depression."

She said Daniel wouldn't submit to it again. "He said he will bite the doctor's arm off," she said. And she testified that she would not comply with any court order to restart the therapy.

It was a matter of faith, she told County Attorney Jim Olson. Her family's religious convictions say to do no harm to the body, and chemotherapy and radiation were poisons. "This is our religious belief, and we believe in traditional methods and to strip that away would be stripping the soul from his body," she said of Daniel.

The hearing was expected to stretch into Saturday, with no indication when a ruling would come. Daniel, with most of his hair gone, was in court Friday but did not immediately testify.

The case is complicated by religion. The family asserts membership in an American Indian religious organization called Nemenhah, though they don't claim to be Indians. In an affidavit, Daniel said he is a medicine man and church elder.

"I am opposed to chemotherapy because it is self-destructive and poisonous," Daniel said in the affidavit, reported by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. "I want to live a virtuous life, in the eyes of my creator, not just a long life."

Daniel is one of eight children.

According to the county's petition:

Daniel's lymphoma was diagnosed in January, and the recommended treatment came after he was seen at Children's Hospitals.

But he suffered respiratory distress after the first chemo treatment, and did not return for a second treatment in March. The family sought second and third opinions, but still preferred alternative treatment.

A child protection worker who interviewed the Hausers in April said the parents "believe the cancer is shrinking due to his special diet" and "do not want to put their son through chemotherapy and its side effects for now and possibly in the future."

The same worker said: "Colleen and Anthony also stated they are not denying the chemotherapy and would start a round of it again if the cancer began to grow more. They do not want to follow through on the whole course of treatment recommended for Daniel."

The county filed the legal action after the parents said they planned to seek a fourth medical opinion, according to its petition.

Bostrom, the pediatric oncologist, was asked whether he would force the medicine into Daniel's body if the court ordered treatment.

"It would be very hard for me to force him to take the medicine," Bostrom said.

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