MINNEAPOLIS  — A four-year-old boy with a rare skin disease has been released from a Minneapolis hospital after undergoing a stem cell transplant.

Charlie Knuth of Darboy, Wis., is recovering at the Ronald McDonald house near the University of Minnesota. Charlie was born without the gene that binds skin together. The disease causes Charlie’s skin to blister. Bandages and gauze were Charlie’s protective second skin. Since the transplant, the blisters that once covered 90 percent of his body now cover just five percent.

KSTP-TV says the stem cell procedure could top $1 million. Wisconsin’s Medicaid office initially refused to pay for the transplant, but relented after Trisha Knuth rallied for her son’s cause in the Fox Valley community.