Hausers still missing, but not their Nemenhah lawyer

Cancer patient Daniel Hauser, 13, and his mother, Colleen, are still eluding law enforcement officials, but their lawyer, Susan Daya Hamwi (right), says she is not with them.

Colleen Daniel Hauser Susan Daya Hamwi
Hamwi was last seen with the Hausers in Brown County, Minnesota, on Monday. Like the Hausers, Hamwi, a California-based lawyer, is a member of the alt-med, pseudo-Native American Nemenhah Band “religious” group.

The Hausers were spotted in the Los Angeles area earlier this week. Hamwi told The Associated Press she was at home and not with the medical fugitives, whom authorities believe intend to enter Mexico.

The Hausers say their religion opposes chemotherapy and radiation treatments for Daniel, who has stage 2B Hodgkin’s lymphoma. They believe the Nemenhah Band‘s herbal therapies will cure Daniel. Medical doctors, however, say that without conventional treatments Daniel’s lymphoma will ultimately kill him.

After a lengthy court proceeding last week, a Brown County judge ruled that the Hausers had to agree to conventional cancer treatments, or Daniel would be placed in foster care and compelled to undergo standard medical procedures.

Colleen and Daniel Hauser, accompanied by Hamwi, made a court-mandated visit to a clinic Monday. After an X-ray showed a growing tumor in Daniel’s chest, the three quickly left, saying they had “other places to go.”

The court had required Daniel see an oncologist immediately if the chest X-ray revealed further progress of his lymphoma.

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Judge rules Minnesota boy must have cancer treatment

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge has ruled a 13-year-old boy with a highly treatable form of cancer must seek medical treatment over his parents’ objections.

Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg ruled Friday that Daniel Hauser of Sleepy Eye has been “medically neglected” and is in need of child protection services. Rodenberg said Daniel will stay in the custody of his parents, but Colleen and Anthony Hauser have until May 19 to get an updated chest X-ray for their son and select an oncologist.

Doctors have said Daniel’s Hodgkin’s lymphoma 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.

So much for the Native American church defense.

Hauser’s parents, and Daniel himself, insisted their religion — subscription to a sketchy Mormon/New Age/pseudo-Native-American church — requires them to treat illness only with natural remedies. Daniel had one chemo session, and the family refused further chemo treatment, saying that the boy is healthy now.

The Hausers are white and Catholic, but some time ago they joined the Nemenhah Band, a group that identifies itself as Native American. The Nemenhah supposedly came to the New World from the Middle East with Hagoth, a figure in the Book of Mormon, and settled in the Four Corners area of the present USA.

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