Mother, son flee in chemotherapy dispute

SLEEPY EYE, Minn., May 20 (UPI) -- An arrest warrant was issued for the mother of a Minnesota teen after the pair missed a court hearing on the son's fight against chemotherapy, police said.

Colleen Hauser and her son, Daniel, 13, have been missing from their Sleepy Eye, Minn., farm since Monday after they went to a medical appointment that indicated the son's cancer was worsening, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported Wednesday.

Only the boy's father, Anthony Hauser, was in court Tuesday for the hearing called to review a court-ordered X-ray to assess whether the younger Hauser's Hodgkin's lymphoma was getting worse. The father said he didn't know the whereabouts of his wife or son.

Brown County, Minn., District Judge John Rodenberg ruled last week Daniel Hauser must receive chemotherapy even though the treatment goes against the family's spiritual beliefs and wishes. The Hausers belong to the Nemenhah, a quasi-American Indian group favoring natural remedies and opposes medicine that attacks or harms the body.

The warrant was issued so police nationwide can apprehend Colleen Hauser, Brown County Attorney James Olsen said. While she could be arrested for failing to appear in court or violating a court order, Olson said the goal of the warrant is to find the son, not punish the mother.

If Daniel Hauser is found, the judge ordered he be placed in foster care and evaluated by a cancer specialist immediately, Olson said.

During the trial, doctors testified the teen had as much as a 90 percent chance of survival with the treatment and a 95 percent chance of death without it. He received one of seven recommended rounds of chemo-therapy after his cancer was diagnosed in January, but didn't show up for the rest.