David Phillip Vetter was a boy from Shenandoah

Shenandoah, Texas

Shenandoah is a city in Montgomery County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,503 at the 2000 census. David Vetter, the famous "boy in the plastic bubble", was from Shenandoah. In 1986 the Shenandoah city council renamed Tamina School Road to David Memorial Drive in honor of...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 who suffered from a rare genetic disease now known as severe combined immune deficiency syndrome

Severe combined immunodeficiency

Severe combined immunodeficiency , is a genetic disorder in which both "arms" of the adaptive immune system are impaired due to a defect in one of several possible genes. SCID is a severe form of heritable immunodeficiency...

 (SCID). Forced to live in a sterile environment, he became popular with the media as the boy in the plastic bubble. He spent most of his life inside a special bubble-like structure at Texas Children's Hospital

Texas Children's Hospital

Texas Children's Hospital is a pediatric hospital located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas.With 639 licensed beds and 465 beds in operation, Texas Children's is the largest children's hospital in the United States and is affiliated with the Baylor College of Medicine as that...

 in Houston. He died in 1984, at the age of 12, after a bone marrow transplant from his sister.

David's parents, David Joseph Vetter Jr.