![]() ![]() His mother could kiss him for the first and the last time when he finally made his way out of the bubble only to die. David was interred on February 25, 1984, at the Conroe Memorial Park, in Texas. He died on February 22, 1984, 15 days after he was admitted back into the hospital, at the age of 12 from Burkitt’s lymphoma. However, from January 1984 onwards, David started to show signs of illness, an infectious mononucleosis fever that adversely impacted him because of an unknown Epstein-Barr virus attack inside the bone marrow which could not be detected during the pre-transplant screening process. Successful but disconsolate bone marrow transplantĪt first, the transplant apparently worked well. Doctors informed the Vetters about an optimistic new technique of bone marrow transplant that used not as many perfect matches and that her sister could be the donor. Late 1983, David gradually began to lose hope that he would ever be able to free up from the bubble’s prison. The case brought up various moral issues, on whether parents having a half shot of SCID induced genetic traits should bear children and whether the information generated by such research defended encouraging or permitting parents to have children subject to this hazard. He started growing into a very handsome and well-behaved boy, endowed with great expressive eyes and tangled dark hair.ĭuring David’s times, the only alternatives for SCID inflicted children were either to be cloistered within the sterile environment or die quickly from the infection. Amusingly, he also played pranks by hiding his pencils as a ploy to bunk school. He used to be taught through the telephone. At the same time, David’s public persona captivated the general public. With growing age David started living increasingly at home with his parents and sister. A friend had arranged for him a special screening of Return of the Jedi at a local theatre. When David was three years old, the treatment team had an additional sterile cocoon and transport chamber built for him at his parent’s home in Conroe, Texas.ĭuring his week-long stays at home, David had his sister and other friends for company. ( Jeremy112233 / Wikimedia Commons) David’s return to the family home from the hospitalĭuring the first few years of his life, David lived mainly at the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. ![]() John Monotgomery interacting with David Vetter. Although it devastated the family, the silver lining was that the extraordinary precautions which Carol along with the medical team had taken, offered David a lease of life.ĭr. The Vetter family anticipated and supplicated wishing that he would be among the safe 50 percent.īut sadly, the test outcomes revealed that David indeed had inherited SCID. Blood tests were conducted for two long weeks immediately after David’s birth. Moments after David drew in his first breath, he was incubated inside a sterile bubble. Katherine, his sister was the expected donor. They relied upon the then developing bone marrow transplant technology and the likelihood that it would progress enough to develop a healthy and stable immune system in a child who lacked one. Failed attempt of a bone marrow transplant However, the Vetters, being devoutly Catholic, ruled out an abortion and decided to go ahead with another pregnancy even though having a daughter already, with the sole notion of a sibling accompanying their girl. The only administration that was available for babies stricken with SCID, at that time, was to quarantine in an aseptic environment until the execution of a successful bone marrow transplant. Vetter’s parents were thoroughly advised and cautioned by the doctors that any male child they might give birth in future would have half a chance to inherit the ailment. The two boys had the commonest variant of the malady characterized by a deadly X chromosome defect that used to plague only boys (although girls could carry the gene as well). ![]() A year sooner, another Vetter kid with SCID died at the age of only 7 months. In those days when David was born on September 21, 1971, at the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, this disease was a virtual capital punishment. The epithet “David, the bubble boy” gained prominence in reference to the complicated containment system that was used to control his genetic abnormality and protect him from potentially fatal attacks. ![]() This meant that any stray germ he came in contact with either through breathing normal air or touching another person could prove lethal. Since birth, his immune system was completely dysfunctional. David had a genetic disorder called Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID). David was the son of Joseph Vetter and Carol Ann Vetter. He is remembered to the world as “the boy in the bubble”. Never was there a child quite like David Vetter. David Vetter wearing a protective space suit at NASA Johnson Space Center. ![]()
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