To see a loved one fall very ill, or even into a coma, can be absolutely heart-wrenching for families, but can you imagine what it might be like for those who are actually in the coma? It's long been one of life's great mysteries: Can they hear us? Can they feel? Do they know what's happening around them? Do they know we're there?
All those answers are starting to come to light now that a South African man named Martin Pistorius is sharing his story. In a book called Ghost Boy: My Escape From Life Locked Inside My Own Body, the 39-year-old Pistorius details his harrowing story of being in a coma for 12 long years.
According to Pistorius, he fell ill in the late 1980s, at the age of 12, to a mysterious illness that baffled doctors in South Africa. Soon he ended up in what equates to a vegetative state. He lost all ability to speak or even move. Doctors didn't think he would even survive. But his family never gave up hope. They stuck to their daily routine in cleaning the boy, feeding him, and turning him every two hours to prevent bed sores.
That lasted for 12 long years. Now, however, Martin is fully able to speak using a computer, and even uses a wheelchair for mobility. His mind is strong.
In an interview last week on NPR's newest program Invisibilia, Pistorius said some incredibly interesting things about his time spent in that 12-year coma. Amazingly, he told the program that he began to "wake up" from his coma when he was around 14 years old. When all of those around him thought he couldn't hear and didn't know what was going on, he was actually fully aware.
“Everyone was so used to me not being there that they didn’t notice when I began to be present again,” he told NPR. “The stark reality hit me that I was going to spend the rest of my life like that — totally alone. You don’t really think about anything. You simply exist. It’s a very dark place to find yourself because, in a sense, you are allowing yourself to vanish."
Unable to move, speak, or communicate in any way with his family and caregivers, Pistorius never imagined that he would recover. He couldn't even let them know that he was aware of everything going on around him.
He even remembers being wheeled into the care center where he would be sat in front of the TV to watch the children's program Barney for hours.
“I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney,” he told NPR.
He even had to hear his mother once say, "I hope you die." It hurt, of course, but he understood that it was out of sadness that he might have to live the rest of his life in this seemingly comatose state.
Pistorius' story is one that is ultimately inspiring, but it's also absolutely terrifying to think about what he went through during those 12 years of being locked inside his own immobile body. His book, which is available now, explores these years in much more depth.
You can see the trailer for Ghost Boy: My Escape From Life Locked Inside My Own Body in the video below. What an astounding story.
Please SHARE this amazing story with all your friends and family.
For those with loved ones who are in comas or very ill, remember that they can hear you and you must keep giving them all the love you have!
