Daniel sick from chemo treatment, Hausers say

Associated Press

Last update: May 29, 2009 - 8:49 PM

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After four days of retreat from the media spotlight, the parents of Daniel Hauser issued a statement Friday on their son's medical treatment and said they will post occasional updates on his condition on a website, dannyhauser.com.

They said the 13-year-old boy reacted poorly to a chemotherapy treatment on Thursday, his first since February, and was depressed about returning to conventional care. "Danny is not tolerating the drugs well and has been vomiting all day,'' the statement said.

"This is a very hard time for our family,'' his mother, Colleen Hauser, said in the statement. "We ask for prayers and that our privacy be respected.'

The statement did not suggest, however, that the family from Sleepy Eye, Minn., planned to challenge the court-ordered treatment that resumed this week.

Also Friday, the Hausers said they have a new family spokesman, Jim Navarro of Houston, Texas, whose own 6-year-old son died while in treatment for cancer in 2001. Navarro's family battled regulators to get alternative therapies for their son, Thomas, and received nationwide attention during the ordeal.

Daniel was diagnosed in January with Hodgkin's lymphoma and had one treatment of chemotherapy in February. His family stopped the therapy, citing religious and other objections, prompting Brown County authorities to ask a judge to order Daniel back into medical care. Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg granted that order this month, but the boy and his mother fled to Southern California, triggering a nationwide manhunt. They returned to Minnesota on Monday and on Tuesday told the judge they were willing to resume Daniel's chemotherapy.

DAVE HAGE

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