Photo: YouTube / John Paul Flintoff
12 years of wake coma are behind Martin Pistorius
Martin Pistorius spent twelve years in the wake coma. What no one knew: he knew what was happening around him, but could not communicate.
Martin Pistorius led the life of a normal, healthy boy until he suddenly became seriously ill at the age of 12 in January 1988. The South African comes home from school with a throat infection. Nothing out of the ordinary for a 12-year-old. At this point no one suspects that Martin will never return to school.
In the following months Martin Pistorius not only loses the ability to speak but also stops eating and complains of pain in his legs. Within 18 months, the formerly healthy boy relies on a wheelchair and the whole day on the help of others.
The doctors are at a loss. Although Martin is tested for a variety of diseases, they do not come to a clear conclusion. A meningitis is suspected, ie a meningitis. Finally, doctors tell Martins parents Joan and Rodney that their son is likely to be suffering from a degenerative disease. The parents are advised to take their son home with them and to wait with them for the redemptive death. It is not expected that Martin Pistorius will live long.
But the doctors should be wrong. Martin lives. At 14, the teenager spends his days in a nursing home, but lives with his parents. They take care of him. But life with her totally introverted son who has no power over his body pushes Joan and Rodney to their limits.
Martin Pistorius has been in a coma for ten years when his mother tells him, "You must die." What the desperate woman does not know: Her son can hear her. Martin just can not make himself felt. But he is there. His mother's words hurt him deeply. But later he learns to forgive her. He himself writes in an article in the Daily Mail.
Without anyone realizing it, Martin's consciousness returns at the age of 16. At 19, the boy's mind is completely intact again. But attempts to somehow get in touch with his environment fail and fail and fail.
Gradually, however, Martin Pistorius can regain control of his body. He starts to move his head and occasionally even smiles. However, nobody believes that he will recover.
But Martin does not give up. He performs a daily fight with his own body. Finally, he even has the power to sit in a wheelchair again. After 12 years, there is no denying it: Martin Pistorius has awakened from the wake coma. However, he still has to communicate with the help of facial expressions and gestures. The ability to speak does not come back.
In 2001, Martin begins to learn to communicate with the help of a computer. Together with his mother, he practices the operation of the speech recognition software. The computer reproduces the words that the then 25-year-old Martin typed. The progress of the former coma patient is so convincing that he even starts working just two years later.
In 2008 Martin Pistorius gets to know the great love of his life in a chat. The Briton Joanna is immediately taken by him. They eventually meet in the UK and marry just a year later. To this day, Martin Pistorius and his wife live happily together. The now 39-year-old web designer has a normal everyday life and is happy for all the love in his life.
Martin Pistorius reveals more about his inner struggle and his life in the wake coma in his book 'Ghost Boy - My escape from a life locked inside my own body'. The German title of the book is: 'When I was invisible'.
