A 13-year-old Sleepy Eye boy with cancer still needs the court’s protection as he continues receiving chemotherapy, Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg ruled Tuesday.

Barbara J. Gislason, an attorney for Daniel Hauser’s parents, Anthony and Colleen Hauser, asked the judge to drop Brown County’s petition because the family is complying with a May 26 court order requiring medical treatment, including chemotherapy.

Daniel Hauser’s parents remain scared of the chemicals, she said.

“Each time he gets chemotherapy, they’re afraid that he will die, right that day,” said Gislason of Fridley. She replaced Mankato attorney Calvin Johnson on June 12.

Hauser’s next dose of chemotherapy was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. today.

A hearing was held Tuesday in New Ulm to scrutinize Daniel Hauser’s adherence to his medical plan.

He was visibly thinner and his mother said he’d lost between 10 and 15 pounds. His symptoms include nausea, fatigue and loss of appetite, according to a doctor’s report filed with the court.

Dr. Bruce Bostrom, a cancer specialist in Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis who first diagnosed Hauser in January, wrote in a letter to Brown County that the family has been “very cooperative in the care of Daniel.”

And given that Hauser’s tumor is shrinking and not resistant to the chemotherapy drugs, Bostrom wrote he believes the boy has an “excellent” chance of being cured.

Hauser received a second round of chemotherapy on May 28 and June 4, he wrote. The drug procarbazine was removed from the regimen to reduce the risk of secondary cancer and infertility, both of which were brought up during the trial as reasons to avoid chemotherapy.

Bostrom also wrote that Hauser was not taking prednisone, an oral steroid. Gislason said the boy would vomit upon taking the three-pill dose, and had lowered it to one pill in order to keep it down.

Hauser was at the courthouse Tuesday but did not attend the hearing.

Philip Elbert, a court-appointed attorney who represents Hauser, said his client does not believe he still needs the court’s protection.

“It does appear that substantial compliance to the case plan has occurred,” Elbert told the judge.

And while Hauser does not want to undergo chemotherapy, he’ll do it if the court tells him to, Elbert said.