Pearland boy makes remarkable recovery via stem cells

Six-year-old Pearland resident Tucker Beau Hyatt has known that he has been battling Monstritis for a long time. He has taken on the guise of Batman (shhh!) in order to beat it.

Monstritis was the then two-year-old Tuckers way of understanding his diagnosis of Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), a rare form of Rheumatoid Arthritis that affects about 300,000 children in the U.S. Over time, the membranes in the joints wear down, causing severe pain, loss of appetite and mobility.

Tuckers mother, Linsey Hyatt, recalls that it all started with a very high fever and a rash all over Tuckers body. We took him to the pediatrician thinking it was just some sort of infection, she said.

The blood work came back all over the place, and the youngster was referred to an Infectious Disease Specialist at Texas Tech.

The doctor took one look at Tucker and his chart and instantly knew what it was, Hyatt said.

By that time, Tucker had stopped eating and was unable to walk. We went to a rheumatoid specialist in Austin, which was the closest doctor to Midland, where we were living at the time, recalls Hyatt. They started him on chemotherapy, which was awful.

Tuckers mom and dad, Todd Hyatt, never stopped searching for a better solution to help their son, who was slowly wasting away from the disease. This is not a quick thing, said Linsey. Its slow and painful.

The Hyatts moved to Pearland in June of 2013 because of Todds job. They had become active with the Arthritis Foundation right after Tuckers diagnosis and attended an RAF luncheon in Austin featuring former Houston Oiler Earl Campbell, who suffers from osteoarthritis, in February 2014.

It was there that they first heard about Celltex, a company that facilitates stem cell therapy for RA, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinsons and other autoimmune diseases.

We wanted to be able to tell Tucker Beau that we had done everything possible to help him, said Linsey.

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Pearland boy makes remarkable recovery via stem cells