David Vetter

Vetter's parents later divorced. His father went on to become the mayor of Shenandoah, Texas. His mother married Kent Demaret, a magazine reporter who had written about her son. Vetter's psychologist, Mary Murphy, wrote a book about Vetter's case that was to be published in 1995; however, its initial publication was blocked by his parents and Baylor College of Medicine. The book was published in 2019 under the title Bursting the Bubble: The Tortured Life and Untimely Death of David Vetter.

An elementary school which opened in 1990 in The Woodlands in unincorporated Montgomery County, Texas, was named David Elementary after Vetter.

In his first years of 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 Dobbin, Texas. He died in 1984, at the age of 12.

Approximately $1.3 million was spent on Vetter's care, but scientific study failed to produce a true "cure" and no donor match had been identified. Vetter later received a bone marrow transplant from his sister, Katherine. While his body did not reject the transplant, he became ill with infectious mononucleosis after a few months. He died 15 days later on February 22, 1984, from Burkitt's lymphoma at age 12. The autopsy revealed that Katherine's bone marrow contained traces of a dormant virus, Epstein–Barr, which had been undetectable in the pre-transplant screening.

He was buried at Conroe Memorial Park, Conroe, Montgomery County, Texas, on February 25, 1984.

In 1977, researchers from NASA used their experience with the fabrication of space suits to develop a special suit that would allow Vetter to get out of his bubble and walk in the outside world. The suit was connected to his bubble via an eight-foot (2.5 m) long cloth tube and although cumbersome, it allowed him to venture outside without serious risk of contamination. Vetter was initially resistant to the suit, and although he later became more comfortable wearing it, he used it only seven times. He outgrew the suit and never used the replacement one provided for him by NASA.

David Phillip Vetter (September 21, 1971 – February 22, 1984) was an American who was a prominent sufferer of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), a hereditary disease which dramatically weakens the immune system. Individuals born with SCID are abnormally susceptible to infections, and exposure to typically innocuous pathogens can be fatal. Vetter was referred to as "David, the bubble boy" by the media, as a reference to the complex containment system used as part of the management of his SCID. Vetter's surname was not revealed to the general public until 10 years after his death in order to preserve his family's privacy.

Vetter's parents were David Joseph Vetter, Jr. and Carol Ann Vetter. Their first son, David Joseph Vetter III, was also born with SCID and died at 7 months of age. Vetter's parents were advised by physicians that any future male children they might conceive would have a 50% chance of inheriting the disease. At the time, the only management available for children born with SCID was isolation in a sterile environment until a successful bone marrow transplant could be 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.