David Vetter Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
David Joseph Vetter, III (September 21, 1971 - February 22, 1984) was a boy who lived in Houston and suffered from a rare genetic disease now known as Severe Combined Immune Deficiency Syndrome which forced him to live in a sterile environment. His story was popular in the media, which called him the boy in the plastic bubble, which became the title of a made for TV film starring John Travolta.
David's parents, David Vetter Jr. and Carol Ann Vetter, had tried to have a child before, but the child died six months after birth. The doctors said that the baby had been born with no immune system, and as this was a genetic condition, any offspring of that couple would suffer the same fate. A trio of doctors from Baylor College of Medicine — John Montgomery, Mary Ann South and Raphael Wilson — told the Vetters that if they had another child with SCID, the child could be placed in a sterile isolator until a cure could be found. The couple were anxious to have another child to carry on the family name. So, believing that after a short treatment their child could live a normal life, they decided to go through another pregnancy.
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2 Nasa Suit 3 Psychological Aspects 4 Death 5 Impact on scientific ethics 6 Impact on popular culture 7 External links |
David's birth was a real circus. A special sterilized cocoon bed was prepared for him. Only twenty seconds after being removed from his mother's womb, David entered the germ-free ambience that would be his home the rest of his life. Water, air, food, diapers, clothes all were disinfected with special cleaning before entering his cocoon. He was handled only through special plastic gloves attached to the wall.
Time passed and the research on David's disease did not give any result. What was a temporary solution became his home, and as he grew, they had to allocate a whole hospital room to him. As the years went by, David had to move to many each other environments in the (hospital name) hospital, each one bigger to fit him.
The researchers and his parents tried to give him a normal little boy's life: he had formal education, he watched TV, learned about germs and therefore was aware of the outside world and his special condition.
In 1977, NASA researchers used their space suit fabrication experience to develop a special suit that would allow David to get out of his cocoon and walk in the outside world. They built a rather clumsy suit that could be connected to his room and so that he could get inside it without any risk of contamination.
On the day when Vetter was to receive his gift, many scientists and the press attended to watch the day that the bubble boy would emerge from his bubble. But to everyone's disappointment David never wore the suit. He was too nervous with all the people and refused to even get out of his room. After some hours he did leave his room, but as soon as he saw the suit he became frightened and retreated, exclaiming That's the kind of place where germs live!
David's refusal could be interpreted as an Emotional Design error. Although the suit was fully functional no study had been made on its psychological impact, therefore David was unable to create an emotional link to the suit. For months it stayed attached to David's environment, but he never got any closer to it.
Although the press created an image of a healthy young boy trapped in a bubble, David was very psychologically unstable, mainly due the lack of any human contact. In some occasions he refused to talk to any nurse and spread his own excrement all over the environment.
After many years David's situation became unbearable. He was a full-grown boy and the expectations as to healing him were still the same as when he was a baby. Doctors feared that as a teenager he would become even more unpredictable and uncontrollable. The U.S. government spoke about cutting the research funding as it showed no results and there was a growing discussion on the ethics of that experiment. And the general public vision was less supportive of the project. Everyone felt uneasy with the situation and agreed that he simply could not be kept there forever.
His doctors, Murphy, Feigin and Shearer sugested to place him on a regime of gamma globulin and antibiotics and remove him from the bubble, but since that almost certainly would have condemned him to death, his parents refused. Then they decided to perform a bone marrow transplant, the marrow being donated by his sister Katherine. After a few months David started having diarrhea, fever and severe vomiting, so they had to take him out of the bubble
David left his bubble for the first time in 1983. The first person he ever hugged was his nurse and old friend, Mrs. Murphy. She decided to open the window so he would have a chance of seeing the blue sky and maybe feel a fresh air breeze. But she cried: all they saw was a concrete wall.
David died 15 days later of Burkitt's lymphoma, caused by an unscreened virus in his bone marrow, the Epstein-Barr.
David's life coincided with the birth of genetic therapy. Most genetic diseases are incurable, so current medical philosophy is: recognize before them before it's too late and prevent them (as opposed to Vetter's doctor's approach of let's go on and we'll see later how to deal with it).
David's story directly inspired at least two movies. The first, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble was a cheap direct-to-tv movie starring the beginner John Travolta. David was named — and was a normal teenager except he went to school in a special suit. In the end he finds a girlfriend and simply decides to step out of his bubble and to run away with her, riding a horse to the sunset, presumably to have some fun and a certain death. David actually saw the movie and laughed of how could Travolta enter the bubble with the suit.
The other movie was Bubble Boy, a light comedy made in the 2000's.
But David’s story had a more subtle impact on popular culture. Born in an age of microwave dinners, widespread use of antibiotics, and relatively germ-free urban life, he became an icon of the artificiality of modern life. David's story thus strikes vague resonances with many people who may not remember his name or the details of his case.
This is an Article on David Vetter. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About David Vetter Birth
Nasa Suit
Psychological Aspects
Death
Impact on scientific ethics
Impact on popular culture
External links
Movies