![]() ![]() The Vetters rejected that procedure.įour years later, advances in transplanting unmatched bone marrow were made and one month after David’s 12th birthday his older sister Katherine donated the marrow which was then introduced into David’s system. Mary Murphy later reported from a meeting in June 1980 in which Feigin and Shearer tried to convince the family to remove David from the bubble and place him on a regime of gamma globulin and antibiotics hoping that he could develop an immune system. Unfortunately, they failed to find a perfectly matching donor. His doctors had always hoped to correct his immune deficiency with a bone marrow transplant. William Shearer eventually headed the team and it was Feigin who started the discussion to change David’s intolerable situation. Over a period of a few years, the medical team caring for David Vetter changed. When it was replaced, he never wore the new suit. David made around six journeys in his suit until he outgrew it. The day David climbed into the suit, he was able to walk more than six steps into the same direction for the first time in his life and he managed to hand a cup of ice to a nurse, which was the first time he had ever handed something to another person. At first, it was very hard to get him into the suit as he worried there could still be germs and Mary Murphy helped him and gave him confidence. In 1977, NASA developed a Mobile Biologistical Isolation System, which was a suit that allowed the boy to walk around outside the bubble. Where do you suppose I could get some legal advice?” Still, there were also some moments David Vetter could enjoy at least a little bit. In his later years, Murphy reported David saying: “I am a mouse surrounded by ten cats, and there are no dogs to chase the cats away …. However, even though the media always depicted a happy “bubble boy” who always smiled and played cheerfully, Murphy noticed that his hopelessness expanded over the years in which he had an increasing understanding of his situation. She worked on her dissertation (on his wish) in his room while he read, did his homework or played as usual in his bubble. Mary Murphy spent a lot of time with David Vetter. Murphy became one of David Vetter’s most trusted persons and she was often called when nurses and doctors at the hospital had troubles with his behavior, for instance, when he refused to enter his newly established play bubble. In general, David’s perception was sometimes described as one-dimensional, as he could never feel wind on his skin etc. In the beginning, when Murphy asked David to define a tree, he “responded that it was a brown rectangle with a green oval on top”, which stunned her as his knowledge on geometry was great but his awareness of daily life so little. The psychologist who was about to finish her dissertation started examining David as he grew in the bubble. There, the three year old met his child psychologist Mary Murphy, who stayed on his side for the rest of his life. In 1974, a bubble was set up at his family’s home in Conroe so David could spend more time with his family. Seconds after his c-section, David was placed in a sterile environment and later on, the boy was transferred to Texas Children’s Hospital where he started his life in a bubble made of polyvinyl chloride film, mounted with rubber gloves to handle the baby.ĭavid Vetter in his spacesuit, photo: NASA Johnson Space Center Luke’s Episcopal Hospital that had been cleaned several times in order to make it as germ-free as possible. ![]() Life in the Bubbleĭavid Phillip Vetter was born on September 21, 1971, in a room at St. Apparently, the doctors believed that finding a cure was just a matter of time and there was only little discussion on how long the boy could be kept in isolation and at that point no ethical questions were probably discussed. that in case they chose to have another child (and it suffered from the illness) the baby could be placed in a sterile isolator to protect him from germs until a cure was found. The doctors also explained to Carol Ann and David Vetter Jr. In the latter case, if the Vetters had another son, the odds were 50-50 that he, too, would be afflicted by SCIDS. The Vetters were told by several doctors that the boy’s death may have been caused by a mutant gene, however, there was also the possibility that the defect might be carried on one of the mother’s X chromosomes. had their first son in 1970, who unfortunately died of Severe Combined Immunedeficiency Syndrome at the age of only 6 months. Backgroundīefore David was born, his parents Carol Ann and David Vetter Jr. In the media, Vetter was referred to as “ David, the bubble boy“, because he lived in a special sterilized plastic cocoon bubble from birth until he died at age 12. He was a prominent sufferer of severe combined immunodeficiency ( SCID), a hereditary disease which dramatically weakens the immune system. On September 21, 1971, David Phillip Vetter was born. ![]()
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