Clinton family fighting to save their 'miracle baby,' asking for help
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CLINTON, N.C. (WTVD) -- Though Heather and Reginald Tucker are parents of two, they call their 4-month-old, Jackson, their miracle baby. Jackson is fighting a rare type of leukemia.
The Clinton family is looking for a bone marrow match, but Heather says it's not her son's first fight for his life.
"Jackson was truly a blessing, a miracle baby, and when I say that I mean that from deep within my heart," she said.
"I had a very healthy pregnancy, and even when Jackson was born we realized how much of a miracle he was because when he was born, his chord was actually tied in a knot, and the doctor told us how amazing it was, that he survived that, so you know that was like Jackson's second miracle, his first was just me being able to get pregnant," she added.
Heather said Jackson seemed like a perfectly happy and healthy baby until an unexpected trip to the ER on Easter Sunday changed their lives, when Jackson - then 2-and-half-months-old - began to feel discomfort.
"We took him to the local ER," Heather said "From the local ER they discovered that he had a white blood cell count that was four times the normal level, at that time they sent us to UNC to do more tests."
"At UNC they were immediately searching for things like stomach issues because that's what we were thinking. They sent us home after four nights at UNC and then the very next day, we got the dreadful call that he had some leukemia cells," she continued.
After weeks of testing the results finally came back to the Tucker family - Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia a type of blood cell cancer so rare, only 1 to 2 percent of children with leukemia are diagnosed with it - a one in a million disease.
According to the Children's Cancer Research Fund, JMML, is a type of leukemia where too many immature white blood cells are made, taking over healthy cell production.
"I kept telling myself and I continue to tell myself each and every day that you know, Jackson is a miracle," Heather said.
