Death
Approximately $1.3 million was spent on David's care, but scientific study failed to produce a true "cure" and no donor match had been identified. Physicians expressed concern that, as a teenager, David could become unpredictable and uncontrollable. Those concerns and advances in unmatched bone marrow operations led the medical team to recommend, and the family to decide to attempt, an unmatched bone marrow transplant through intravenous lines running into the bubble. The transplant operation went well, and produced hopes that he would be able to leave the chamber. A few months later, however, David became ill, for the first time in his life, with diarrhea, fever, severe vomiting and intestinal bleeding. The symptoms were so severe that he had to be taken out of the chamber for treatment.
He died 15 days later on February 22, 1984, from Burkitt's lymphoma, aged 12. The autopsy revealed that the donor bone marrow contained traces of a dormant virus, Epstein-Barr, which had been undetectable in the pre-transplant screening. Once transplanted, the virus spread and produced hundreds of cancerous tumors.
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“You stars that reigned at my nativity,
Whose influence hath allotted death and hell.”
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—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
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That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
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Must give us pause.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)