ShortHand: The Boy in the Bubble

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

Just 20 seconds after he was born, David Vetter was moved into a sterile plastic bubble, a few feet away from his mother. It would be his home for the next 12 years.

Due to a severe immunodeficiency, doctors feared that even minutes of exposure to the outside world would kill him. So he spent his entire childhood sealed away, never touching another human being. After becoming a national phenomenon and inspiring Hollywood movies, it was clear this couldn’t last. Then, after 12 years, the team thought they finally had a cure.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Become a patron:
Patreon

Order a copy of the book here (US & Canada):
Order on Wellesley Books
Order on Amazon.com

Order a copy of the book here (UK, Ireland, Europe, NZ, Aus):
Order on Amazon.co.uk
Order on Foyles

Follow us on social media:
Instagram
TikTok

Sources

https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/08/03/they-killed-us-inside/investigation-august-4-beirut-blast

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-53668493

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/world/middleeast/beirut-explosion-blast.html 

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/08/06/beirut-lebanon-explosion-ammonium-nitrate-russian-ship-robertson-pkg-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn 

https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/historiography-and-memory-lebanese-civil-war.html 

https://web.archive.org/web/20070115172923/http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/specialsession/A.HRC.3.2.pdf 

https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/a-hidden-tycoon-african-explosives-and-a-loan-from-a-notorious-bank-questionable-connections-surround-beirut-explosion-shipment 

https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/ownership-of-chemicals-that-exploded-at-beirut-port-traces-back-to-ukraine 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-53701648 

https://splash247.com/report-links-cypriot-shipping-magnate-to-beirut-disaster/ 

https://apnews.com/article/politics-beirut-lebanon-03eb5ff04f6ad86b3d0d6fb2ab25bdd6 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/12/sarah-copland-the-australian-mothers-relentless-fight-for-justice-after-her-sons-death-in-the-beirut-port-explosion 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3iLmvrjV8U

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-05/isaac-oehlers-parents-beirut-blast-four-corners/12699756 

https://globalnews.ca/news/8646379/what-happened-beirut-explosion/ 

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/france-reveals-plan-to-rebuild-lebanons-beirut-port-destroyed-in-2020-explosion/ 

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210804-french-president-macron-pledges-100-million-euros-worth-of-emergency-aid-for-lebanon 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/16/france-to-host-new-international-aid-conference-on-lebanon