Ted DeVita
| Ted DeVita | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Theodore David DeVida 1962 Deep Creek Lake, Maryland |
| Died | May 27, 1980 (aged 17–18) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Aplastic anemia, and transfusion hemosiderosis |
Ted DeVita (1962 – May 27, 1980) suffered from severe aplastic anemia requiring him to live in a sterile hospital room for a significant portion of his life – eighteen and a half years.
His story, along with that of Texas patient David Vetter, was used to create the 1976 made-for-TV movie The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. In the film, John Travolta played "Tod", a teenage boy who lived in a sterile bubble due to illness. DeVita was 14 when the film, unauthorized by his family, was released. In 2004, the story of DeVita's life, illness, death, and the lasting impact of these events on his family was examined in a memoir by his younger sister, Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn, entitled The Empty Room: Surviving the Loss of a Brother or Sister at Any Age.
Ted DeVita was the son of NIH oncologist and researcher Vincent T. DeVita, Jr., MD, who diagnosed his son's illness in 1972. Severe aplastic anemia is a rare disease in which the body is suddenly unable to produce new blood cells and platelets. Its victims have no effective immune system and must be protected from infection. DeVita was admitted to the National Institute of Health Clinical Center. While scientists and physicians tried all known treatments for his condition, DeVita was isolated in Building 10, in a "laminar airflow room". This specialized room on "13-East" had been created in 1969 to protect leukemia patients whose immune systems had been compromised by chemotherapy. Physicians hoped the sterile room and frequent blood transfusions would sustain him until he recovered spontaneously or an effective treatment was found.
The "laminar airflow room" gave DeVita a living space the size of a normal bedroom. He was able to walk around and participate in many normal activities, but could be touched only with gloved hands. He lived surrounded by plastic sheeting containing a door-sized space through which sterilized objects, including food, clothing, and books, and occasionally doctors and nurses, could pass in and out. He was surrounded by a "curtain" of air, a steady outflow of positive air pressure to expel potential pathogens.
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