SAN CLEMENTE : No Sign of Cancer Detected in Boy, 4

The parents of 4-year-old Daniel Harberts, who underwent rare and highly risky liver surgery last week, said Friday they received confirmation that the cancer was removed and their son can return to their San Clemente home today.

“We had the best news,” said Dorothy Harberts, Daniel’s mother. “The final pathology report came in and said they got all the tumor.”

Harberts said she and her husband, Craig, made the difficult decision to go ahead with the eight-hour surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Dec. 2, knowing that there was a possibility that the boy could die.

“But we also knew that if we did not put Daniel through the surgery, he would have died,” she said. He already endured open-heart surgery to remove a malignancy from his right atrium and a variety of chemotherapy treatments, and Daniel had “run out of options,” his mother said.

Harberts said Daniel is still recuperating from surgery and may need more chemotherapy as a precaution. But she said although three-fourths of his liver was removed in the surgery, the portion that remains is regenerating and “in three or four weeks he will have a full liver.”

Daniel’s recovery also is good news for the San Clemente community, which has showered financial and emotional support on the Harberts through their ordeal.

Teri Steel, a next-door neighbor of the Harberts who has been coordinating fund-raising efforts to help pay Daniel’s medical bills, said Daniel will be greeted at his home with balloons, banners and a Christmas tree that is a present from St. Timothy’s Catholic Church in Laguna Niguel.

Steel said today’s homecoming will be kept low-key, with only a few friends and neighbors invited. She said for the next three weeks the San Clemente Junior Women’s Club will deliver dinners daily to the Harberts, to help the couple relax and regain their bearings.

Supporters have planned a Feb. 5 benefit dinner for the family at the San Clemente Community Center, Steel said.

“We want (the Harbertses) to know we are still supporting them 100%,” Steel said, noting that the Harberts are $100,000 short of money to cover Daniel’s medical bills.

Dorothy Harberts, who was living in a hotel to be near her son while he was hospitalized, said she hasn’t had much time to prepare for Christmas. “This will be a good Christmas for us just to have him home,” she said.