Runaway Mom Agrees to Son's Chemo Treatment

May 26, 2009 — -- The parents of Daniel Hauser, the Minnesota boy who was on the lam with his mother for nearly a week to avoid court-mandated chemotherapy, told a judge today that they now agree to the medical treatment.

In return, the judge ruled that Daniel, who had been put in county custody when he returned home this weekend, would be returned to his parents.

Brown County Family Services objected to the judge's ruling, saying that they wanted Daniel to stay in the county's custody.

The mother of the teenage boy stricken with Hodgkin's lymphoma said it was the boy's decision to flee the family's Minnesota farm when a judge ordered him back into chemotherapy.

Now back home after nearly a week on the run, Colleen Hauser, who police said has not been charged in her son's disappearance, said she had no choice but to go with him.

"Danny was going to run away, then what do I have?" Hauser said. "I mean he was going to run, and that just broke my heart. I can't have a kid, one of my children, run away from something they should face head on."

Her comments were filmed by a production company called Asgaard Media, which paid for their chartered flight home. The company said it was hired by the family to film the Hausers' homecoming and interviews.

Daniel Hauser, who spoke very little to the cameras trained on him, said that if he could say something to all the people who have passed judgement on his situation, it would be to "back off."

The Hausers and police have not yet revealed where the two traveled when they disappeared after a court rejected the boy's request to refuse chemotherapy treatment for his Hodgkins lymphoma disease. Doctors said they believe Daniel will die without the treatment.

Irvine, Calif., attorney Jennifer Keller, who was hired by the Hausers shortly before their return to Minnesota, told "Good Morning America" today that Colleen Hauser has said she'll "do her very best" to comply with court ordered treatment for Daniel's Hodgkins lymphoma.

"My understanding is that Colleen is going to continue to press to at least have Danny tried on some alternative therapies," she said.

"That's been her goal all along," Keller said, "to find something that would be effective, but not painful."

Doctors said Daniel has a cancerous tumor growing in his chest that is likely to kill him if he does not receive additional chemotherapy, but his family has said it prefers natural healing methods.

The family is Roman Catholic and believes in the do no harm philosophy of a Missouri-based religious group called the Nemenhah Band,which believes in natural healing.

Keller said she didn't know anything about the media company that was brought in by the Hausers to film the homecoming, saying she was only told about that twist when she was trying to arrange for the use of a private plane to get them home.

She said Daniel didn't appear to her to be in any pain when she met him.

"He certainly appeared to be in good health to me," Keller said. "He didn't seem to be in any kind of pain or distress. His breathing wasn't labored."

She confirmed that Daniel's painful reaction to the first round of chemo and his threats to run away encouraged Colleen Hauser to leave with him. But Keller said that she believed it was always Colleen Hauser's intent to come back to Minnesota.

"I don't believe this is someone who ever intended to flee and become a fugitive or make her son a fugitive," she said.