David Vetter

David Vetter

David Phillip Vetter (September 21, 1971 – February 22, 1984) became famous for living in a sterile environment. He was born with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), a disorder that causes the immune system to not work. Because of this, exposure to any germs could prove fatal. He was called "David the bubble boy" by the news media. Although they knew his last name, they didn't use it in order to give David and his family privacy. His last name was not revealed to the general public until 10 years after his death.

In his first years of his life he lived mostly at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas. As he grew older, he lived increasingly at home with his parents and older sister Katherine in Shenandoah. He died in 1984, at the age of 12.

After the death of their first son, David Joseph Vetter III, seven months after birth, due to SCID, parents David Joseph Vetter, Jr. and Carol Ann Vetter were advised by physicians that any male children they might conceive would have a 50% chance of inheriting the disease. At the time, the only treatment plan for children born with this condition was isolation in a sterile environment until a bone marrow donor was identified and a successful bone marrow transplant performed. The Vetters, who already had a daughter, decided to proceed with another pregnancy. Their third child, David Phillip Vetter, was born September 21, 1971.