Parents fight Minnesota child protection in court after refusing chemotherapy for 5-year-old boy

A Texas mother and father are fighting to regain parenting rights of their 5-year-old son after their refusal to continue his chemotherapy prompted Minnesota child welfare authorities to take custody.

Keaton Peck suffered stroke-like symptoms and was in critical condition in mid-December when Children's Minnesota diagnosed him with an aggressive form of bone marrow cancer and prescribed a month of chemotherapy in the hospital.

The dispute arose a month later when the boy's health improved and doctors prescribed a two-year course of lower-dose chemo to keep the cancer at bay. The parents objected because of the side effects from the harsh treatment, and Children's alerted child protection authorities who then took temporary custody and medical decisionmaking authority over the boy.

"They understand that there are risks with not continuing chemotherapy. They're not oblivious to that," said Christina Zauhar, the parents' attorney, in an interview Tuesday. "But they also believe there are risks involved with continuing chemotherapy."

The trial over parental rights began Monday in Wright County District Court and hinges on medical risks vs. benefits.

Children's Hospital did not comment on the case, but one of its social workers, Alisa Linne, explained in court paperwork the urgency of continued treatment.

"This type of Leukemia is hard to treat if it starts appearing in the blood; therefore, it is important to complete the Chemotherapy treatment the first time around," she said in the petition to place the boy in state custody.

Organizations such as the Children's Oncology Group have studied the chemo regimens that maximize survival odds for Keaton's form of cancer, T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). One study urged continued chemo because patients have a "dismal" recovery rate when this form of cancer relapses.

While the parents have religious and philosophical objections to chemotherapy in the first place, Zauhar said their insistence is rooted in the side effects their child has endured. The attorney listed temporary paralysis, brain bleeds, and muscle pain and weakness as some of the side effects from the early rounds of the drug.

The boy has needed hospital admission because he has struggled with his follow-up rounds of chemotherapy, Zauhar said. The family has taken him to hospital emergency rooms multiple times because they worried that severe headaches or mumbled speech were signs of drug-related brain bleeds, she added.

The attorney urged her client not to speak publicly during the trial, but McKena Peck has been vocal on social media, gaining more than 2,100 supporters in an online petition.

"My 5 year old son was medically kidnapped by the state of Minnesota," Peck said in one post.

The boy and his parents were visiting family in Minnesota over Christmas, and weren't prepared for a long stay. The mother has since given birth to a third child. The father took a leave from work earlier this year but is now commuting back and forth from a job in Oklahoma.

"They're stuck," Zauhar said.

The child protection case doesn't involve their other children. The parents are allowed to live with the boy, who has been placed in the temporary custody of his grandmother in Otsego, Minn. The parents also can accompany him to hospitals or clinics but can't object to treatments.

"Mom is by his side around the clock" at the hospital, Zauhar said.

Child protection cases involving medical neglect are rare. There were 29 in Minnesota in 2020, or 0.6% of all removals related to issues with parents or caretakers, according to the state's most recent child welfare report.

A 2009 case involving cancer care for teenager Daniel Hauser in Sleepy Eye, Minn., drew national attention when his mother tried to flee with him to Mexico in search of alternative treatments. Daniel eventually returned to Minnesota and continued court-ordered chemotherapy at Children's.

Zauhar said she sees her client's case as different, because it involves the risks of medication for relapse prevention rather than an acute stage of the disease. Testimony by medical experts on both sides is expected as the trial continues for a second day Wednesday in Buffalo, Minn.