Remember a few months ago when I reported that Colleen Hauser had fled Minnesota after a judge had ordered her son to undergo chemotherapy? You may remember them as the family who refused to use conventional medicine to treat their son’s deadly Hodgkin’s lymphoma, opting instead to follow the “teachings” of a fake Native American religion called “Nemenhah” (you can find out more about them and their founder, a man with a history of fraud, right here). Well, the story kind of fell off the grid (my bad), but I’m happy to report that the parents have come to their senses and have agreed to follow the judge’s ruling.
Colleen spent about a week on the run before she was convinced that alternative therapies would not do the trick (she was hiding out in California, the capital of New Age). It’s a good thing too; Daniel’s doctor argued that the boy needs immediate and aggressive chemo in order to properly fight off his cancer.
It’s nice to know that this story has a happy ending, assuming of course that he responds well to the chemo, which seems likely. Kind of makes you hopeful that other terribly deluded people can come to their sense with enough persuasion. Who says TGA never has any good news?
June 24th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Yes but unfortunately she was in the news (cnn.com) recently saying that she thinks the alternative new age treatments ALONG with the chemotherapy are actually what’s making him better. And stupid CNN wrote the piece making her sound like she was unfairly treated for having to be forced to treat her son.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/18/hauser.alternative.cancer.treatment/index.html?iref=newssearch
June 24th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
To me, it is almost more touching when someone admits the error of a long strongly held belief than to find someone who has held the correct truth faithfully for a long time. Touching story. It takes a lot to change — nothing like a love for a child to help you.
December 31st, 2009 at 1:54 am
Having suffered from lymphoma, this was good to read. Thank you for this.