Search for mother and son, 13, who fled after refusing chemotherapy

POLICE in the US have launched a nationwide search for a mother and her 13-year-old cancer-stricken son who fled after refusing the chemotherapy that doctors say could save the boy’s life.

Colleen Hauser and her son, Daniel, who has Hodgkin’s lymphoma, apparently left their southern Minnesota home sometime after a doctor’s appointment and court-ordered X-ray on Monday showed his tumour had grown.

Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg, who had ruled last week that Daniel’s parents were medically neglecting him, issued an arrest warrant yesterday for Colleen Hauser and ruled her in contempt of court. Rodenberg also ordered that Daniel be placed in foster care and immediately evaluated by a cancer specialist for treatment.

The family belongs to a religious group that believes in natural healing methods.

Daniel has testified he believed chemotherapy would kill him and told the judge that if anyone tried to force him to take it, “I’d fight it. I’d punch them and I’d kick them.”

The boy’s father, Anthony Hauser, testified he didn’t know where his wife and son were but had made no attempt to find them. He testified he last saw his son on Monday morning, and he saw his wife only briefly that evening when she said she was leaving “for a time”.

Brown County Sheriff Rich Hoffman said investigators were following some leads locally, but declined to elaborate.

“It’s absolutely crazy. It’s very disappointing,” James Olson, the attorney representing Brown County Family Services. “We’re trying to do what’s right for this young man.”

A message left at the Hauser home in Sleepy Eye wasn’t returned. But in an interview in the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Anthony Hauser said he knew places where his wife might have gone, though he did not know where she was.

“I know many people around here who have had cancer, they did the chemo, it would come back,” Hauser told the newspaper.

“They did the chemo again and again and they are all in the grave. Chemo isn’t foolproof.”

Olson, the family services lawyer, had considered asking the judge to hold Anthony Hauser in contempt as well, but he said later he decided against that.

“I’m thinking that he probably doesn’t know where his wife and child are,” Olson said.

Daniel’s Hodgkin’s lymphoma, diagnosed in January, is considered highly curable with chemotherapy and radiation, but the boy quit chemotherapy after a single treatment.

The Hausers are Catholic and also believe in the “do no harm” philosophy of the Nemenhah Band, a Missouri-based religious group that believes in natural healing methods advocated by some American Indians.