NEW ULM — Three doctors forecast a bleak future for 13-year-old Daniel Hauser if he doesn’t receive chemotherapy, but Dr. Vilmarie Rodriguez of the Mayo Clinic framed the issue most starkly.

“His prognosis is dismal. This boy is going to die if he is not properly treated with chemotherapy,” she testified Friday afternoon in a Brown County hearing to determine whether a judge can force the treatment on the Sleepy Eye boy.

His family, however, believes his Hodgkin’s disease, a form of cancer, is cured or nearly cured by a few months of their traditional treatment, which focuses on diet. He was diagnosed with cancer on January 23, and received his first and only dose of chemotherapy on Feb. 5.

Since then, he has refused chemotherapy and is being treated by his mother and a Mankato doctor, Jeffrey Kotulski.

“I believe his survival rate is 100 percent,” mother Colleen Hauser testified.

Brown County is asking Judge John Rodenberg to issue an order forcing the chemotherapy. The county believes allowing Daniel to refuse chemotherapy amounts to child neglect.

Chest X-rays taken on April 2 and April 23 show an increase in his tumor, Kotulski said. The family doesn’t believe the X-rays to be accurate.

Doctors said they weren’t sure how the lapse in treatment will affect his chances. But patients with similar progression of the cancer have a survival rate of close to 90 percent after modern medical treatment, doctors said.

Furthermore, Colleen Hauser said she won’t comply with a court order requiring chemotherapy, and Daniel is likely to physically resist the treatment.

“He said he would bite the doctor’s arm off,” she said. Daniel is one of eight children who lives on the family’s dairy farm outside Sleepy Eye.

And neither of the two cancer specialists who testified could say how a 13-year-old patient could be forced to submit to chemotherapy against his will.

“I will do whatever is needed,” said Rodriguez, who was approached by the family for a second opinion. She also recommended chemotherapy and radiation.

But she stopped short of saying that Daniel would be restrained or drugged.

“I would not hurt a child,” she said.

The courtroom was crowded with onlookers, many supporting the family.

Attorneys represented four interests in the child protection case — the county, the guardian ad litem, the Hausers and another court-appointed attorney for Daniel Hauser. County Attorney James Olson called four witnesses Friday.

Mother’s plan
“We’re starving it,” Colleen Hauser said of her son’s cancer. “We’re not feeding it. The diet is No. 1.”

That diet emphasizes green plants, less protein and “absolutely no sugar,” she said.

She said she learned about traditional options on the Internet and in discussions with experts.

Daniel’s treatment also includes water with a higher pH to “alkalize” the body, which she says creates a less hospitable environment for cancer.

She said the cost of chemotherapy wasn’t a factor. The bill for the first round was $92,900.

She believes the diet treatment is working.

“He gets better and better every day,” she said.

Tough choice
Dr. Bruce Bostrom, Daniel’s initial primary physician and a cancer specialist at Children’s Hospital, contacted Brown County in late April after Daniel stopped receiving chemotherapy.

“It was a very difficult decision for me,” Bostrom said.

He based his choice to notify the county on the fact that Hodgkin’s disease has one of the highest survival rates with modern treatment, but only 5 percent without it.

Compounding the problem is the possibility that his tumor may have re-grown and developed resistance to the chemotherapy chemicals. If that happens, a new treatment plan may require Daniel to stay in a hospital and receive a stem cell transplant. His survival rate would also drop to 50 percent, Mayo and Children’s doctors estimate.

And there are no studies on the curative effects of the non-traditional treatments followed by Daniel’s mother, Bostrom said.

Dr. Kotulski later testified most clinical studies are funded by pharmaceutical companies that would be unable to make a profit from natural techniques.

Bostrom answered a lot of questions about the possible side effects of chemotherapy.

Among them: Infertility, decreased blood cell counts, temporary mood swings, potentially deadly infections, a greater risk of secondary cancers and hypothyroidism, which would have no symptoms but would require Daniel to take a pill every day for the rest of his life.

But “in my opinion, the benefits of treatment far outweigh the risks of the treatment,” Bostrom said.

Complementary care
Dr. Kotulski is currently treating Daniel, but isn’t treating his cancer. His dietary regimen can help Daniel’s immune system in general, but he is not a cancer specialist.

The Mankato doctor testified by phone from Chicago, where he is attending a conference. He is an osteopathic physician, which is very similar to a medical doctor but indicates a philosophy more sympathetic toward alternative medicine. That might include a more healthy diet, reduced exposure to chemicals and exercise.

“To me, nutrition is paramount in allowing the body to recover when we are treating it for cancer,” he said.

He said there have been no studies that show nutrition works to fight cancer without standard chemotherapy.

Dr. Kotulski first saw Daniel on April 23, when he took a chest X-ray. On April 29, he told Colleen Hauser that the mass in Daniel’s chest had grown.

Colleen Hauser has said the mass could just be scar tissue, and the X-ray was taken in a different position than past ones so it’s difficult to compare.

The doctor said it was his medical opinion that Daniel should undergo chemotherapy along with a program of good nutrition.

But “there’s a lot of people who refuse to do chemo,” he said.

Daniel himself, dressed in a tie and leather jacket, was not present for most of the hearing and declined an opportunity to speak to the media. He appeared healthy, but Bostrom told a reporter he expects symptoms to re-appear over the next few months in the absence of chemotherapy.

Olson, the Brown County attorney, said he intended to call Daniel to the stand. Daniel’s court-appointed lawyer, Phillip Elbert, said Daniel did not want to testify and if he did he preferred to do it in private. Judge Rodenberg agreed, and plans to speak to the boy in the presence of attorneys and his parents today.

The case continues this morning — an unusual step — but a ruling appears unlikely this weekend.