Pearland boy makes remarkable recovery via stem cells

PEARLAND, TX -- 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 Tucker's way of understanding his diagnosis of Systemic Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), a rare form of Rheumatoid Arthritis that affects about 1 in 30,000 children in the U.S. Over time, membranes in the joints wear down, causing severe pain and loss of mobility.

Tucker's mother, Linsey Hyatt, recalls that it all started with a very high fever and a rash all over Tucker's 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. From there he was sent to Dells Children's Hospital in Austin where he was officially diagnosed with JIA.

Read more from The Pearland Journal, a Houston Community Newspaper partner