Judge will rescind order for Hauser family

A judge in New Ulm, Minn., ruled Monday that he will rescind a child-protection order for the boy when the treatments end, freeing the Hausers from close county monitoring that has angered the family.

By WARREN WOLFE, Star Tribune

Last update: October 26, 2009 - 10:33 PM

The legal saga of Danny Hauser, the 13-year-old boy from Sleepy Eye who fled the state with his mother last May to avoid chemotherapy, is set to end next week when his cancer treatments are complete.

"The family has done what the judge ordered, and what they promised to do," Brown County Attorney James Olson explained after the hearing. "We told the judge we don't need to continue butting in anymore, and he agreed."

A family spokesman said Monday that Danny is feeling well and appears to be recuperating from the cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The county intervened last spring after Danny had one chemotherapy treatment, then refused more because he and his parents, Colleen and Anthony Hauser, feared the treatment was poisoning him.

Danny and his mother fled to California the day before they were to appear in court for a subsequent hearing. When they returned on May 25, Judge John Rodenberg found that the boy was in need of court protection and ordered the family to follow treatment recommended by doctors. Without chemotherapy, the doctors said, the boy would probably die.

In September, the boy completed a course of chemotherapy that was shorter than expected because he responded well, doctors said.

He began radiation treatments Thursday at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, and on Monday had the third of 12 planned radiation treatments, due to end Nov. 6.

Danny is "feeling good and doing very well," family spokesman Dan Zwackman said Monday. "All the tests [for cancer] are negative. The radiation is to make sure."

Zwackman said the family continues to credit a stringent diet and supplements with "at the least helping fight off the cancer. It's a diet -- lots of vegetables and fruits, not much meat -- that Danny expects he will be on for life."

At Monday's hearing, the Hausers' attorney withdrew a request that the county immediately end supervision of Danny's cancer treatment and prohibit county workers from visiting the family home.

Those home visits involved interviewing the Hausers' other children, probing their home schooling and investigating the Hausers' parenting, Colleen Hauser said in an affidavit filed with the court last week.

She argued that Brown County social workers and Danny's court-appointed guardian overstepped their medical-oversight authority during home visits and interfered with the family's home life.

Before the hearing Monday, the county attorney said the county's actions may well have disrupted the Hausers' lives, "but they kind of brought that on themselves when they left town."

Warren Wolfe • 612-673-7253

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