Judge rules family can't refuse chemo for boy
What's your take on this?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hEYZV56pCa-jEce4S...
Judge rules family can't refuse chemo for boy
By AMY FORLITI – 17 minutes ago
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge ruled Friday that a 13-year-old cancer patient must be evaluated by a doctor to determine if the boy would benefit from restarting chemotherapy over his parents' objections.
In a 58-page ruling, Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg found that Daniel Hauser has been "medically neglected" by his parents, Colleen and Anthony Hauser, and was in need of child protection services.
While he allowed Daniel to stay with his parents, the judge gave the Hausers until Tuesday to get an updated chest X-ray for their son and select an oncologist.
If the evaluation shows the cancer had advanced to a point where chemotherapy and radiation would no longer help, the judge said, he would not order the boy to undergo treatment.
The judge wrote that Daniel has only a "rudimentary understanding at best of the risks and benefits of chemotherapy. ... he does not believe he is ill currently. The fact is that he is very ill currently."
Daniel's court-appointed attorney, Philip Elbert, called the decision unfortunate.
"I feel it's a blow to families," he said. "It marginalizes the decisions that parents face every day in regard to their children's medical care. It really affirms the role that big government is better at making our decisions for us."
Elbert said he hadn't spoken to his client yet. The phone line at the Hauser home in Sleepy Eye in southwestern Minnesota had a busy signal Friday. The parents' attorney had no immediate comment but planned to issue a statement.
Daniel was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and stopped chemotherapy in February after a single treatment. He and his parents opted instead for "alternative medicines" based on their religious beliefs.
Child protection workers accused Daniel's parents of medical neglect; but in court, his mother insisted the boy wouldn't submit to chemotherapy for religious reasons and she said she wouldn't comply if the court orders it.
Doctors have said Daniel's cancer had up to a 90 percent chance of being cured with chemotherapy and radiation. Without those treatments, doctors said his chances of survival are 5 percent.
Daniel's parents have been supporting what they say is their son's decision to treat the disease with nutritional supplements and other alternative treatments favored by the Nemenhah Band.
The Missouri-based religious group believes in natural healing methods advocated by some American Indians.
After the first chemotherapy treatment, the family said they wanted a second opinion, said Dr. Bruce Bostrom, a pediatric oncologist who recommended Daniel undergo chemotherapy and radiation.
They later informed him that Daniel would not undergo any more chemotherapy. Bostrom said Daniel's tumor shrunk after the first chemotherapy session, but X-rays show it has grown since he stopped the chemotherapy.
"My son is not in any medical danger at this point," Colleen Hauser testified at a court hearing last week. She also testified that Daniel is a medicine man and elder in the Nemenhah Band.
The family's attorney, Calvin Johnson, said Daniel made the decision himself to refuse chemotherapy, but Brown County said he did not have an understanding of what it meant to be a medicine man or an elder.
Court filings also indicated Daniel has a learning disability and can't read.
The Hausers have eight children. Colleen Hauser told the New Ulm Journal newspaper that the family's Catholicism and adherence to the Nemenhah Band are not in conflict, and that she has used natural remedies to treat illness.
Nemenhah was founded in the 1990s by Philip Cloudpiler Landis, who said Thursday he once served four months in prison in Idaho for fraud related to advocating natural remedies.
Landis said he founded the faith after facing his diagnosis of a cancer similar to Daniel Hauser. He said he treated it with diet choices, visits to a sweat lodge and other natural remedies.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hEYZV56pCa-jEce4S...
Judge rules family can't refuse chemo for boy
By AMY FORLITI – 17 minutes ago
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge ruled Friday that a 13-year-old cancer patient must be evaluated by a doctor to determine if the boy would benefit from restarting chemotherapy over his parents' objections.
In a 58-page ruling, Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg found that Daniel Hauser has been "medically neglected" by his parents, Colleen and Anthony Hauser, and was in need of child protection services.
While he allowed Daniel to stay with his parents, the judge gave the Hausers until Tuesday to get an updated chest X-ray for their son and select an oncologist.
If the evaluation shows the cancer had advanced to a point where chemotherapy and radiation would no longer help, the judge said, he would not order the boy to undergo treatment.
The judge wrote that Daniel has only a "rudimentary understanding at best of the risks and benefits of chemotherapy. ... he does not believe he is ill currently. The fact is that he is very ill currently."
Daniel's court-appointed attorney, Philip Elbert, called the decision unfortunate.
"I feel it's a blow to families," he said. "It marginalizes the decisions that parents face every day in regard to their children's medical care. It really affirms the role that big government is better at making our decisions for us."
Elbert said he hadn't spoken to his client yet. The phone line at the Hauser home in Sleepy Eye in southwestern Minnesota had a busy signal Friday. The parents' attorney had no immediate comment but planned to issue a statement.
Daniel was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and stopped chemotherapy in February after a single treatment. He and his parents opted instead for "alternative medicines" based on their religious beliefs.
Child protection workers accused Daniel's parents of medical neglect; but in court, his mother insisted the boy wouldn't submit to chemotherapy for religious reasons and she said she wouldn't comply if the court orders it.
Doctors have said Daniel's cancer had up to a 90 percent chance of being cured with chemotherapy and radiation. Without those treatments, doctors said his chances of survival are 5 percent.
Daniel's parents have been supporting what they say is their son's decision to treat the disease with nutritional supplements and other alternative treatments favored by the Nemenhah Band.
The Missouri-based religious group believes in natural healing methods advocated by some American Indians.
After the first chemotherapy treatment, the family said they wanted a second opinion, said Dr. Bruce Bostrom, a pediatric oncologist who recommended Daniel undergo chemotherapy and radiation.
They later informed him that Daniel would not undergo any more chemotherapy. Bostrom said Daniel's tumor shrunk after the first chemotherapy session, but X-rays show it has grown since he stopped the chemotherapy.
"My son is not in any medical danger at this point," Colleen Hauser testified at a court hearing last week. She also testified that Daniel is a medicine man and elder in the Nemenhah Band.
The family's attorney, Calvin Johnson, said Daniel made the decision himself to refuse chemotherapy, but Brown County said he did not have an understanding of what it meant to be a medicine man or an elder.
Court filings also indicated Daniel has a learning disability and can't read.
The Hausers have eight children. Colleen Hauser told the New Ulm Journal newspaper that the family's Catholicism and adherence to the Nemenhah Band are not in conflict, and that she has used natural remedies to treat illness.
Nemenhah was founded in the 1990s by Philip Cloudpiler Landis, who said Thursday he once served four months in prison in Idaho for fraud related to advocating natural remedies.
Landis said he founded the faith after facing his diagnosis of a cancer similar to Daniel Hauser. He said he treated it with diet choices, visits to a sweat lodge and other natural remedies.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jef on -
True, if its your kid, you're gonna do whatever it takes, if you believe in it, no matter how much it costs. money is no object when it comes to your children. BUt the choice of what to spend the money on based on what they think is best, should be the parents', with the kid. Some thirteen year olds are pretty mature.
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Permalink Reply by Jef on
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There is plenty of cancer in Amish communities, especially around here. There may even be more. But you may be right that they are left alone because they've been doing their thing for years and years. As far as I know though, they don't have religious objections to medical care, and they submit to all the same conventional stuff as other people. Their eating habits are not that much better than general public, except less fast food and eating out.
I think this is really sad, and not clear cut. sort of scary actually. That's why when I feared my daughter had appendicitis I was afraid to take her to the DR. too soon, because once I take her, then the pressure is on to do exactly what they recommend, even if there was time to try natural stuff without danger. Its a slippery slope once you step into a Dr office, and to be accused of child abuse when you are doing what you think is best., must be awful. But then there is always the chance that they Are being negligent too, especially if they've never taught him to read, unless there really are significant learning disabilities.
REally when It comes down to it, we don't have all the information, so its hard to really say much.
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Permalink Reply by AwesomeUniverse!!! on -
That's interesting to know Jef. I was wondering that about some of the traditional people. I thought the Amish, Mennonites, etc. probably had lower cases of a lot of things and also didn't do hard core stuff like chemo. Regular surgery is understandable like on an appendix. I had read that there was no autism in groups where there hadn't been innoculations at early ages.
But yeah that is horrible about the child abuse aspect. I wasn't saying that money should be more important than the kid but that conventonal medicine costs $250,000 to treat something like that. It is so ridiculous! It's like you get sucked into this trap of having to pay so much more than is possible for most families to afford. I also have seen stage 4 cancer reversed via alternative methods so this should be a choice. Butthere is a big diference between withholding treatment altogether and using a more alternative treatment that has worked on other people. I have seen live video of people praying over a patient and the tumor disappearing and that takes no time at all- so what's the loss?
But definitely if the patient can't breathe because the tumor is so large in their lungs that should be addressed right away in the most aggressive manner possible.
It doesn't make sense to me that they would take the kid away from its parents like that. When did all this start happening? Haven't we already decided these matters in the United States- or are we reving up again to find people to drag through the courts and media etc. It just sounds like a circus machine to me..
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Permalink Reply by Ken on -
As much as I'm in favor of natural and spiritual healings, and as much as I'm skeptical or put of by others trying to dictate what people HAVE to do with their own health choices, some folks really arn't in the best mindset or coming from the highest sources of health information on which to wage these kind of choices. You see advice all the time, yet who is really sure 100% when they are taking about someone else's life int he balance?
Sometimes the best decisions ARE made taking allopathic routes in periods of extreme crisis..and picking up the pieces afterwards (especially when "success" is so high). Thinking some kind of arbitrary nutritional or even completely holistic approach will work thorough all kinds of crisis HAS gotten people killed I suspect. so the rulings only make sense form that standpoint.
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Permalink Reply by John on -
I don't agree that the court should decide for a child to undergo chemotherapy.
For many reasons, I would not undergo chemotherapy. These so-called "drugs" are horribly toxic chemicals. I believe the body has an amazing ability to heal, if the body is cleaned of toxins, and is provided with high-quality nutrients. Also, some "diseases" won't be "cured" through even the best type fo care.
I would hope I would be allowed to make the same decision for my child, if I felt that was the better choice. I wouldn't want some judge, who is not a doctor, nor a specialist in so-called "alternative" therapies, to be forcing my child into undergoing chemotherapy.
Also, years ago when I was involved in writing a book about the corruption in the medical industry I met an older couple with a story to tell.
Their married daughter had the same type of cancer as the boy in that court case.
The young lady, who was in her mid-20s, chose to undergo chemo, but also chose to treat it at the same time with a raw food diet. This happened in the 1980s. I met the couple years after this took place.
The doctor advised her to undergo a procedure to insert a portacath, which is an implantable device used for delivering the chemotherapy directly. It was to be insterted through her neck.
http://www.gynoncology.com/Movies/Portacath_Insertion.htm
She showed up at the hostpital with her parents. Once she was under anesthesia, which the doctor allowed student doctors to handle, the doctor then allowed the student doctors to do the procedure, inserting the portacath.
The office worker told the parents that the young lady was in recovery and that they should go to lunch, and when they come back she will be ready to go home.
Little did they know that when the office worker was telling them this, their daughter was already dead.
While installing the portacath, the student doctors had punctured the young lady's heart.
It was later revealed that the young lady's doctor had never entered the room, and the entire procedure, from beginning, the tragic end, was in the hands of student doctors. They were allowed to perform this procedure as if the young lady was some sort of test dummy.
The family gave me all of the medical records, and all of the records from the very complicated medical malpractice lawsuit. Also, the father wrote a book about the entire case, and gave me the manuscript of that.
In the autopsy, it was revealed there was no sign of lymphoma cancer in the woman's body.
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Permalink Reply by AwesomeUniverse!!! on
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thats a great point John. If people want to stay alive they need to have a personal attending physician keep track of what is going on.
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Permalink Reply by John on
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This isn't to say that the boy would undergo the same chemotherapy, or that the doctors would advise that a portacath to be inserted.
My choice would also not be based on the young lady's situation, but on the whole process in general, and the substances used.
http://www.sunfoodliving.com
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Permalink Reply by Joyousfig on -
Everyone I know who has died from cancer has dies from the treatment for cancer. This would be a "no brainer" for me. Check out "Healing Cancer" DVD from www.theravediet.com. The only cure for cancer is a healthy immune system. i'm with the parents on this one, but I'd incorporate a raw diet as well as reputable alternative healing. I can't say my kids would go for Mom's methods, though.
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Permalink Reply by Blueberry on -
This makes me so angry
My father died of cancer and when diagnosed was given a year to live as it was aggressive and had spread, he didn't opt for drugs or radiotherapy at that point as he wasn't in pain, and he lived another 7 years, in great health ie jogging 10 miles a day, going round the world etc. The last year of his life when he had pain,he started taking the drugs and then more drugs to offset the side effects of the other drugs etc,he was on about 20 drugs and then radiotherapy, and he deteriorated so rapidly he was unrecogniseable it was horrendous.
The thing is people are so brain washed to believe they need these things, I suspect he may have been able to reverse it had he started it earlier but he wasn't into alternative treatments, or interested in raw food although he ate healthy though all his life.
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