David Vetter - Story of The Bubble Boy/Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) syndrome
1.9 هزار بار بازدید -
2 سال پیش
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We have seen how our immune system is constantly working to keep us healthy. Even a minute deviation from its normal function leads to diseases and disorders. So imagine, what if a baby is born without a functional immune system?? Yes, this condition is called Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) syndrome. It is a rare genetic disorder characterized by defective immune cells caused by numerous genetic mutations. SCID victims will have little or no immune response and they are extremely vulnerable to infectious diseases. Even mild infections such as the common cold are life-threatening in these people.
Can you imagine what happens if you are locked alone inside a room without external contact with the outside world? How long you can stay? Few hours, few days? Of course, some have stayed for some 15 to 20 days during quarantine. But to be frank, we cannot stay alone even if we are provided with all the requirements such as food, water, and even the internet. Here is the story of David Phillip Vetter who lived his entire life inside a sterile bubble due to SCID syndrome.
David was born in 1971 at the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. His parents already had a son, who died from SCID syndrome when he was seven months old. When David's mother was pregnant for another child, Doctors told them that there was a 50/50 chance that another son would be born with the same disease. So his parents were ready with a sterile plastic isolator bubble before David's birth. After 20 seconds of exposure to the outside world, he was placed in that bubble where he spent the rest of his life. In his entire life, he was exposed to the outside world only for these 20 seconds.
Everything that has to enter this bubble such as food, water, clothing, and toys was sterilized before placing inside the bubble to avoid infection. The boy studied, played, and shared his love and affection with his family everything in the bubble. So David Vetter was popular as “The Bubble Boy” or “The Boy in the Bubble”.
In 1977 researchers from NASA designed a special suit that would allow him to get out of his bubble and walk in the outside world. So David took his first steps outside of the isolator bubble at the age of six. Although the process of wearing this suit was complicated, it was worth it for both David and his mother - who was able to hold her son in her arms for the first time that too after six years of his birth. With this suit, he could walk and play outside without the risk of contamination.
In 1984, when David was 12 years old, he received a bone marrow transplant from his sister Katherine. Unfortunately, after four months of bone marrow transplantation, David died from a type of cancer called lymphoma. That was the first and last time David's mother touched David without gloves in her hand.
An autopsy revealed that Katherine’s transplanted bone marrow contained traces of a virus called Epstein-Barr virus, which was not detected by pre-transplant screening at the time of transplantation. Later it was revealed that the virus which was hidden in Katherin’s bone marrow was responsible for David's lymphoma.
This is probably one of the most unfortunate stories that we’ll come across in the field of medicine. But David’s case served as a milestone for SCID. After David’s case, there have been developments in gene therapy, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and enzyme replacement therapy for SCID. And partly because of the work done by physicians treating David, more than 90 per cent of infants diagnosed with SCID are now successfully treated with bone- marrow transplantation.
David's legacy also led to the establishment of the David Center and the David Clinic at Texas Children's Hospital which encourages research on immunodeficiency and related disorders.
References
https://abc13.com/houston-health-davi...
https://www.immunology.org/boy-in-the...
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/bubb...
https://www.firstclassmed.com/article...
https://www.irishmirror.ie/david-vett...
BGM:
Sorrow in Raindrops by Keys of Moon | SoundCloud: keysofmoon
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
#swiminscience #sowmyanrao #sowmyanagaraj
We have seen how our immune system is constantly working to keep us healthy. Even a minute deviation from its normal function leads to diseases and disorders. So imagine, what if a baby is born without a functional immune system?? Yes, this condition is called Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) syndrome. It is a rare genetic disorder characterized by defective immune cells caused by numerous genetic mutations. SCID victims will have little or no immune response and they are extremely vulnerable to infectious diseases. Even mild infections such as the common cold are life-threatening in these people.
Can you imagine what happens if you are locked alone inside a room without external contact with the outside world? How long you can stay? Few hours, few days? Of course, some have stayed for some 15 to 20 days during quarantine. But to be frank, we cannot stay alone even if we are provided with all the requirements such as food, water, and even the internet. Here is the story of David Phillip Vetter who lived his entire life inside a sterile bubble due to SCID syndrome.
David was born in 1971 at the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. His parents already had a son, who died from SCID syndrome when he was seven months old. When David's mother was pregnant for another child, Doctors told them that there was a 50/50 chance that another son would be born with the same disease. So his parents were ready with a sterile plastic isolator bubble before David's birth. After 20 seconds of exposure to the outside world, he was placed in that bubble where he spent the rest of his life. In his entire life, he was exposed to the outside world only for these 20 seconds.
Everything that has to enter this bubble such as food, water, clothing, and toys was sterilized before placing inside the bubble to avoid infection. The boy studied, played, and shared his love and affection with his family everything in the bubble. So David Vetter was popular as “The Bubble Boy” or “The Boy in the Bubble”.
In 1977 researchers from NASA designed a special suit that would allow him to get out of his bubble and walk in the outside world. So David took his first steps outside of the isolator bubble at the age of six. Although the process of wearing this suit was complicated, it was worth it for both David and his mother - who was able to hold her son in her arms for the first time that too after six years of his birth. With this suit, he could walk and play outside without the risk of contamination.
In 1984, when David was 12 years old, he received a bone marrow transplant from his sister Katherine. Unfortunately, after four months of bone marrow transplantation, David died from a type of cancer called lymphoma. That was the first and last time David's mother touched David without gloves in her hand.
An autopsy revealed that Katherine’s transplanted bone marrow contained traces of a virus called Epstein-Barr virus, which was not detected by pre-transplant screening at the time of transplantation. Later it was revealed that the virus which was hidden in Katherin’s bone marrow was responsible for David's lymphoma.
This is probably one of the most unfortunate stories that we’ll come across in the field of medicine. But David’s case served as a milestone for SCID. After David’s case, there have been developments in gene therapy, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and enzyme replacement therapy for SCID. And partly because of the work done by physicians treating David, more than 90 per cent of infants diagnosed with SCID are now successfully treated with bone- marrow transplantation.
David's legacy also led to the establishment of the David Center and the David Clinic at Texas Children's Hospital which encourages research on immunodeficiency and related disorders.
References
https://abc13.com/houston-health-davi...
https://www.immunology.org/boy-in-the...
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/bubb...
https://www.firstclassmed.com/article...
https://www.irishmirror.ie/david-vett...
BGM:
Sorrow in Raindrops by Keys of Moon | SoundCloud: keysofmoon
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
2 سال پیش
در تاریخ 1401/04/22 منتشر شده
است.
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