16 results found

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  Film

  The Boy in the Bubble

  When David Vetter died at the age of 12, he was already world famous: the boy in the plastic bubble. Mythologized as the plucky, handsome child who had defied the odds, his life story is in fact even more dramatic. 

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Article

  David Vetter's Parents

  Doctors explained that if the Vetters had another boy, there was a fifty percent likelihood that he would also be afflicted with SCID. Amniocentesis determined that the fetus was indeed male, and the Vetters, devout Catholics, decided to proceed with the pregnancy, albeit with extraordinary measures prepared for the birth.

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Timeline

  David Vetter's Life, and Treatments for Immunodeficiency

  The life and legacy of David Vetter (1968 - 2001)

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Article

  David Vetter's Legacy

  David Phillip Vetter, the "Bubble Boy," left a deep mark on a world he visited only briefly. David's life contributed to scientific understandings and treatments of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), the disease that kept him in the bubble.

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Article

  The Texas Hospital Team

  Many people cared about and cared for David Phillip Vetter during his life. He received his medical care at Texas Children's Hospital, part of the Texas Medical Center in Houston and a teaching hospital of Baylor College of Medicine.

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Image Gallery

  David Vetter's Spacesuit

  See pictures of David and his special suit

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Article

  Caring for David Vetter

  Caring for any infant or child has its challenges without having to handle him with rubber gloves through a plastic bubble. Nurses practiced diapering and holding a doll for two weeks before David Vetter was born. He never wore anything but lightweight clothing in his life, but as an infant, the small buttons were difficult to maneuver and his mother, Carol Ann Vetter, sometimes resorted to using the adhesive tabs from a disposable diaper to keep his shirt closed.

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Article

  David's Birth

  Doctors at Texas Children's Hospital told David and Carol Ann Vetter that their second son had a 50/50 chance of being born with the same immunodeficiency that had killed their first son. 

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Article

  David Vetter's Death

  On October 21, 1983, David Vetter received a bone marrow transplant from his older sister Katherine. Unfortunately, Katherine's marrow was not an exact match for David's.

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  Film

  Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal (español)

  La historia de las mujeres cuyo liderazgo impulsó el proyecto de ley del Superfondo.

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Article

  Bioethics Opinions

  Medical conditions like SCID raise many questions — and provide few easy answers.

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Article

  David Vetter's Cognitive Development

  Being kept in an isolator bubble for his health held risks for David Vetter's cognitive development. His doctors knew of a recent case involving German twins kept in isolators. Those boys exhibited evidence of retardation, although some symptoms went away after they were released from their bubbles. Many worried that the twins' mental abilities were adversely affected by their time in the bubble. David was watched carefully.

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Article

  David Vetter Gets a Germ-Free Mobile Suit

  In 1974 doctors at Texas Children's Hospital caring for David Vetter considered how they might help him experience life beyond the stationary isolator bubbles that protected him from the germs to which he was so susceptible. They needed engineers who understood life support systems and synthetic fabrics, who could "dock" the suit with the isolator, and who allowed no margin of error. Luckily, those engineers worked down the road at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

   

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Article

  David Vetter's Sister

  Katherine Vetter was almost four years old when her brother David was born with an immunodeficiency disorder. The close genetic match between siblings meant that Katherine was David's best hope for a cure at the beginning and at the end of his life.

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  The Boy in the Bubble | Article

  David Phillip Vetter (1971-1984)

  David's entire life was spent inside a plastic isolator bubble to protect him from the germs that his body could not fend off.

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  Film

  Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal

  In the late 1970s, residents of Love Canal in Niagara Falls, NY discovered their neighborhood had been built on a former chemical waste dump. Housewives activated to create a grassroots movement that galvanized the landmark Superfund Bill.