Today's Most Popular Video
May 20, 2009 7:56 pm US/Central
Mass. Man Who Fled Chemo Denies Being With Teen
BOSTON (WCCO) ―
-
-
Daniel Hauser, of Sleepy Eye, and his parents are fighting efforts by Brown County officials to force him to undergo chemotherapy. The family says that would violate their religious beliefs.
CBS
A man who fled painful chemotherapy treatments more than a decade ago denied Wednesday that he was with a teenage boy who's running away from them now.
Billy Joe Best said in a telephone interview he was in Boston and hadn't talked to 13-year-old Daniel Hauser and his mother since they fled New Ulm, Minn., after a court-ordered medical exam showed Daniel's Hodgkin's lymphoma had worsened.
Daniel's family belongs to a religious group that believes in natural healing methods, and he has testified he believed the chemo treatments would kill him. A District Court judge in Minnesota ruled last week Daniel's parents were neglecting him and ordered them to consult doctors.
Daniel's father, Anthony Hauser, has said he last saw his wife and son on Monday, doesn't know where they are and has made no attempt to find them.
An alert issued to police departments around the country had said the Hausers might be traveling with Best, who as a teenager in 1994 ran away from home to Houston to escape chemotherapy for cancer similar to Daniel's.
Best said Wednesday he last saw the Hausers when he was in Minnesota nearly two weeks ago for court hearings. He said he'd help them if they called him.
"I've been really upset about this case," Best said. "I don't know what to do. I want to help. I want to help them in any way, if they need a place to stay, or someone to talk to, I just want to do whatever I can for them, but I can't."
Best, who's in his early 30s, has claimed his Hodgkins lymphoma was cured by natural remedies when he was a teenager. In early May, he appeared at a news conference held by the Hausers and said he supported the family's refusal of chemotherapy, which doctors say could save Daniel's life.
Best was diagnosed with cancer in 1994 and underwent five months of treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. But when doctors said they wanted him to have another round of the painful treatment, the then-16-year-old fled his Norwell home on a Greyhound bus with some clothes, his skateboard and about $300 he made selling his soccer shoes and an electric amplifier.
"The reason I left is because I could not stand going to the hospital every week," Best wrote in a note to his parents. "I feel like the medicine is killing me instead of helping me."
Best spent three weeks in Houston but returned home when his parents promised they wouldn't force him to have the chemotherapy.
Best's parents, Sue and Bill Best, of East Bridgewater, didn't immediately return phone messages from The Associated Press.
According to their Web site -- at http://www.billybest.net -- Billy Joe Best was cured by a daily injection called 714X, an herbal remedy and a strict diet. The 714X, according to the Web site, contains camphor, nitrogen salts and mineral salts.
The site links to the distributor of 714X and says Best's parents operate a company called Best Enterprises, which distributes the herbal remedy, Essiac.
-------
According to Chemotherapy.com, chemotherapy is the general term for any treatment involving the use of chemical agents to stop cancer cells from growing. Chemotherapy can eliminate cancer cells at sites great distances from the original cancer. As a result, chemotherapy is considered a systemic treatment.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Couple Recalls Deadly Tour Bus Crash
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
