In 1988, the health of 12-year-old Martin Pistorius suddenly began to deteriorate rapidly, and eventually the teenager fell into a waking coma. The doctors said that the boy was in a vegetative state and there was nothing to help him. Everyone around him thought that he did not hear or understand anything, but they were wrong. And since Martin had absolutely no control over his body, he could not send any signal to those around him. Everything changed after 13 long years, when he was looked after by a nurse named Virna.
The author read the autobiographical book written by Martin Pistorius in one breath, and believes that his life story deserves a film adaptation by some eminent director (Robert Zemeckis, for example). There is no doubt that the end result would be a great movie full of drama, suffering and, of course, love. Read our article and see for yourself.
Martin Pistorius lived in South Africa in the 1980s. He was an ordinary, quite healthy boy who was fond of various technical things. For example, at the age of 11, he himself could fix a socket in the house. He also equipped his room, filled with Lego blocks, with alarms to shield it from his younger brother and sister, David and Kim.
One day in January 1988, 12-year-old Martin returned home from school and complained of a sore throat. He did not go to school again, as his health began to deteriorate sharply. He gradually stopped eating, could sleep for a long time even during the day, it began to hurt him to walk, and his body was weakening. Changes also took place in consciousness: at first he began to forget the facts, then he forgot how to perform simple actions, and then he stopped recognizing the faces of people close to him.
Martin's mom, Joan, gave him a frame with a family photo, and every day she played a video of his father, Rodney. Only all this turned out to be useless. Speech disorders began to appear, Martin forgot who he was and where he was. A year after that January day, the teenager, lying in a hospital bed, uttered his last words at that time: "When home?"
Martin no longer looked like a typical 13-year-old boy. He has lost a lot of weight, his fingers and toes curled up, becoming like a bird's claws. His body did not obey at all. It was not paralyzed, just Martin could not control it. The only thing he could do on his own was instinctively to swallow the food that his mother gave.
That is, at that moment Martin was already in a waking coma. This is a neuropsychiatric disorder in which the patient's eyes are open, he rotates them in the eye sockets, but does not fix his gaze, often makes chaotic movements of his limbs, speech and emotional reactions are absent, verbal commands are not perceived and contact with him is impossible. At the same time, the main autonomic functions (breathing, activity of the cardiovascular system, sucking, swallowing, excretion of urine and feces) are preserved in the patient.
Doctors conducted many tests, treated for various diseases, mostly from cryptococcal meningitis and tuberculosis, tried dozens of treatments, but nothing was needed. Martin was even admitted to a psychiatric hospital for several weeks, as the doctors thought the illness was psychological. In the end, after a year of futile attempts to find out the cause of the disease, South African doctors threw up their hands and advised to send the child to a boarding school, letting the disease take its course. Scientists minds from other countries (America, Canada and England) said they were unlikely to be able to help, since, according to them, doctors from South Africa did their best.
Promotional video:
Martin was brought home and looked after by his mother, Joan, who quit her job. A year later, when he turned 14, the boy's parents decided to take him to a temporary hospital every day and take him home in the evening. His father, Rodney, also took part in the care of his son. He woke up early, dressed and washed his son, took him to the hospital, then went to work. And in the evening he took Martin, washed, fed, changed his clothes and put him to bed. At night, he woke up and turned his son over so that he did not have bedsores. And Martin sat in a wheelchair or lay in the ward, unaware of anything around him. As he writes in his book, "I lay there like an empty shell." So many days and months passed, until one fine day consciousness began to return to him.
Then Martin was already 16 years old. He began to slowly but surely learn to focus his gaze, hear what was happening around him, smell, and most importantly, think. The body still did not obey, the limbs were shaking uncontrollably, but the boy was already aware that these were his body parts, although they seemed to him as if covered with cement. Paramedics often worked Martin's legs and arms by flexing and unbending them, but all he could do was take a couple of shuffling steps while someone was supporting him under his armpits.
The mind became stronger and stronger, and by the age of 19 it had fully recovered. Martin clearly understood who he was, where he was and what was happening around him and in the world (there was a TV in the room). But since the young man had practically no control over his body, he could not communicate in any way that he was conscious, and not the former “vegetable” with the intelligence of a 3-month-old child. Martin was literally buried alive in his body. And everyone around treated him like a houseplant, which sometimes needs to be watered and pushed into a corner. No one suspected that Martin's consciousness had already been restored.
Once, Rodney silently prepared his son for bed and changed his clothes. Martin tried to move his hand as best he could, but once again he failed. With rage, he began to inhale sharply.
- Son, are you okay? Rodney asked.
The young man stared into his eyes, trying to convince him that he hears and understands everything.
“Let’s put you to bed, okay?”
After that, Martin realized that all his feeble attempts to reach out to others are doomed to failure. He resigned himself to spending the rest of his days locked in his own body. He seemed to be on a desert island, which was his body, and the hope of salvation was practically extinguished.
At this time, his family split into two camps. On the one hand - Martin and his father Rodney, who surrounded his son with incredible care and wholeheartedly believed in his healing. On the other hand, Martin's mother Joan, who almost never approached the motionless son and devoted time only to his brother and sister. For many years, the family quarreled constantly. Joan insisted on putting Martin in a permanent boarding school, and Rodney opposed it. During another quarrel, when Martin understood everything, but others did not know about it, Joan with tearful eyes turned to her son and slowly said: “You must die. You must die! At that moment, Martin more than ever wanted to fulfill her request.
No, for the first 2 years, the boy's mother took care of him as tirelessly as his father, but over time she realized that her child would never be the same. Joan developed depression, due to which she even attempted suicide by taking a handful of pills. And only the timely help of Rodney and the doctors did not allow her to die. Doctors advised her to communicate less with her disabled son, so as not to fall into depression again. After these words, she lost interest in Martin.
When Martin was 23, a young girl named Virna began working in the day hospital as an auxiliary nurse. She was the only person who, while performing her routine duties, did not talk to herself, but to the motionless Martin. It was then that he began to make eye contact with Virna more often. She was sure that Martin did not hear her and, moreover, did not understand, but nevertheless she shared everything that happened in her life. He gazed into her eyes with all his might, but Virna didn't react to it. But one day she noticed that Martin sharply exhales air when she asks him some questions. She was also able to catch his barely noticeable smiles and head nods. Virna told her colleagues about this, but they did not believe in the awareness of Martin's actions.
One evening, Virna saw a TV show about a woman who was numb after a stroke, and scientists were able to restore her communication skills. On the open day, Virna visited a medical center, where experts talked about ways to help those who are unable to speak. There was a small hope in the girl that the specialists would be able to help Martin learn to speak. She convinced his parents to take the boy to the Center for Alternative Communication Methods at the University of Pretoria to get tested. Martin was then already 25 years old, it was 2001. That is, 9 painful years have passed since the return of consciousness.
The testing itself was long and thorough, it caused tremendous excitement in Martin, as he was afraid to fail. But he still managed to keep his eyes on the required pictures, to stop the arrow on the dial with his head at the right moment, to correctly point to certain objects using the switches. Based on the way his eyes moved during the search for drawings and symbols, experts came to the conclusion that Martin hears them for sure, is perfectly oriented in reality and is not mentally retarded.
After this triumph, Martin learned to communicate with the outside world with difficulty for another year using a computer with special software. Martin had to select pictures and symbols from tables and use a switch to make the computer sound them. Of course, he still spent his days in hospital as he still needed care. And although everyone there already knew that Martin perfectly hears and understands, everyone treated him like an unreasonable child. Except for Virna.
She was sweet and courteous to him, told everything about her life. And at some point Martin realized that he loved Vyrna. Once he tried to let her know and just raised his hand. But she thrashed aimlessly in the air and then powerlessly fell to her side. Virna looked at the guy for a long time and asked:
"Do you think something is possible between us?" Sorry Martin.
The young man felt a pain in his chest that he had never felt before. His heart broke.
Martin with his father, mother and sister Kim.
Trying to drown out his emotional pain, Martin learned to use some programs with the help of a computer, answer phone calls, send emails. He became more and more familiar with computers and was even able to tune the machine sound to his taste. Having found a new voice, he spoke to the public at the health center, where he spoke about his way of communicating with people. After the performance, people came up to him with congratulations. This was very unusual for Martin.
His body strengthened a little, he learned to sit upright, his neck muscles were strengthened so much that it was already possible to use a mouse-head, his right hand became much more obedient. Pistorius began speaking to students and researchers about the possibilities of communication through technology. And after one of the speeches, Martin was offered a job in a communication center. It was 2003. That is, only 2 years have passed since the first testing. It was a real success. Six months later, he was presented with an electric wheelchair. From that day on, Martin himself could manage his movements.
Until December 2006, Martin often performed in front of the public and worked very hard. He slept 5-6 hours a day, and the rest of the time he worked or learned something new. But he lacked love. He wanted to give her the one and only one that he still had to find. But the problem was that Martin, in his 30s, understood women no better than a 12-year-old boy. Although he communicated well with many young ladies, they all perceived Martin as a curiosity. No more.
One day in 2008, Martin spoke via Skype to his sister Kim, who was in the UK at the time. At that moment, her friend Joanna came to visit Kim. On the computer screen, she saw a handsome guy who was smiling while talking using a computer. She later stated that she immediately understood: Martin is the one she wants to be with all her life. After that meeting on Skype, they began to exchange emails, chatting for hours on the Internet, and after a month and a half they confessed their love to each other. Six months later, Martin flew to the UK to marry Joanna. In June 2009, they got married.
By this time, the right side of Martin's body had recovered so much that he could not only pour coffee into cups on his own, but also drive a car. And more recently, at the end of 2018, he and his wife Joanna became the parents of a beautiful baby named Sebastian Albert.
This is how Joanna describes her relationship to her husband: “Martin's physical limitations cannot limit our love. And in spite of everything, he is the most lively person I have ever met."
Some facts:
- In 2011, Martin co-authored the autobiography Ghost Boy with Meghan Lloyd Davis. It was translated into Russian in 2015 under the title “In the land of dragons. The amazing life of Martin Pistorius."
- In 2015, he spoke at a TED conference where he told the story of his life.
- In 2018, the BBC filmed a video about his life.
Now 44 years old and he is immensely happy, although almost a third of his life was a ghost. Yes, ghosts do not exist, but Martin did not exist for those around him, including his family. And only by some miracle he managed to shout out to this world and break out, having spent 13 years in captivity in his own body. This is a unique story about a man in a state of pseudo-coma, which ended with a happy ending. But how many such people live locked in their bodies, no one knows.