Bubble Boy...doco

[nemosmum]

Hey anyone catch the doco on SBS the other night (think it was Tues night..preggie brain)
About the Bubble Boy Stephen sorry forget his last name???

It was fascinating yet totally bizare to me...

Could not imagine putting my child into that kind of situation for 12 long years
BUT then again i cant judge as ive fortunately never been told i carry a rare incurable disease gene.

I think i would have opted not to have any more children OR to do gender selection to ensure i had a baby girl.

If you saw it.....What did you think?

[bearsmummy]

Bugger i wish i had known it was on... would have been really interesting to watch.....

[nicoleE]

I missed it! (surprise surprise, i always miss things i hear about and never remember to tune in!)

Here is the write up on sbs:

THE BOY IN THE BUBBLE
David Vetter had spent his entire life inside a sterile isolator, with a protective layer of plastic shielding him from the world around him. Afflicted with a rare hereditary disease, severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), David was defenceless against any germs. Now, his doctors were gambling on an experimental procedure to free him from his isolation – but David would live only two weeks in the outside world before succumbing to infection. In his own time, many regarded David's twelve-year odyssey inside his bubble as a triumph of technology. This documentary is a story of medical perseverance and personal tragedy produced and directed by Barak Goodman and John Maggio. With first-hand recollections from David's mother and the doctors, nurses, therapists, and the chaplain who cared for him, as well those who were critical of the handling of his case, this one-hour film documents the life of a little boy who became a living experiment in a fight to cure a rare disease. (From the US, in English) (Documentary) PG CC WS

[nicoleE]

I just found this site... http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bubble/index.html

I didnt realise he died .. i thought he was still alove.. from what i read and the pictures I saw it looks like he lead a terribly lonely life... makes you really think about all the little things that we should appreciate....

[annb]

I think it would never be allowed to happen had it happened in todays society, it all seemed like he was an experiment that unfortunately went wrong. It would have been considered inhumane to have subjected a child to that sort of environment today, psychologically that poor little boy had to live an awful life deprived of so much that he actualy became frightened to leave the bubble. Anyway as it turned out it was his sisters bone marrow that eventually caused the virus that killed him which was even worse as they thought that it might have helped save him

[nemosmum]

Thanks for the blog Nicole...see i thought his name was stephen (damn preggie brain!!!)


Wasnt it only 1983 that he died? so not so long ago

I agree about the whole awful experimental aspect, cant imagine putting my child through that
BUT then the alternative wasnt very appealing either

[TwoBlue]

DH and I are so disapointed that we missed it.. what a sad existence for a little boy.....

[SilverStarfish]

It was sad... though it is a little comforting to know that because of him and his life 90% of children with SCIDS today are saved.

The treatment, the doctors, the bubble... all of that seemed to be a reflection of technology and medicine at that time. Very gung ho, "we can do anything", blindly optimistic sort of feel - the same sort of thinking that went on through the space race.

The same couldn't happen today, but thankfully it doesn't have to.