The Remarkable Story of David, the Kid Who Had to Live Inside a Plastic Bubble Forever

David Phillip Vetter spent 9 months in his mother’s womb, and just seconds after his birth, he was placed inside a plastic bubble and never left it. David suffered from a rare condition called SCID — which meant he had no functioning immune system. Let’s find out together how this little boy’s story cannot be forgotten, even more than 50 years after his birth, and how he changed the lives of millions of people.

David was the third child his parents welcomed into their lives.

David came into the world in September 1971, in Texas. He was the third child of his parents Carol Ann and David. They had a daughter, Katherine and later a son, David Joseph, who passed away in infancy, from SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency). When the couple found out they were having another boy, doctors said there would be a 50% chance they will be born with SCID.

In 1977, David received a gift that allowed him to walk around freely.

Specialists thought that the measure of keeping David in plastic, the sterile bubble would be just for a short period, while they searched and found a cure for SCID. They thought the boy would outgrow SCID by age 2. Eventually, David was confined to the bubble for his entire life to be protected against viruses and bacteria that could have been fatal.

The staff of the Texas Hospital Center, where David spent his first 5 years of life, wondered if it was ethical to raise a child inside a bubble, and they eventually agreed it was.

Every single thing that the boy received — food, water, diapers, clothing, books — had to be sterilized and inserted through airlocks. These isolation containment centers were designed by NASA engineers — who later also created a suit for David, resembling an astronaut’s suit, so that he could move around freely.

Thanks to the spacesuit, which was worth $50,000 at the time, David’s mother, Carol Ann, could hold and hug her son for the first time on 29th July 1977, when David was 5 years old.

As medical options advanced, there was new hope for David.

In 1983, doctors shared a new procedure — a bone marrow transfusion from donors that are not a perfect match. Katherine, David’s sister, volunteered as the donor in an attempt to cure her brother’s ailment. Sadly, 4 months after, at just 12 years old, David Vetter passed away from lymphoma, a cancer that was later confirmed to have been introduced to his system by the Epstein-Barr virus, which was dormant in his sister’s marrow.

David is believed to have been the last person ever to be placed inside a plastic bubble.

The Texas Hospital later opened the David Center — dedicated to the research, diagnosis, and treatment of immune deficiencies. Today, thanks to the boy and the legacy he left behind, there are now laws in place that allow for newborn screening panels. Moreover, many children suffering from SCID are diagnosed early and can now lead healthy, normal lives. A renowned doctor shared that “What David gave us was a powerful lesson in many areas of medicine — and just in life itself.”

David Vetter’s headstone epitaph reads, “He never touched the world, but the world was touched by him.”

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