Featured Image Credit: Supplied
Topics: Health, Mental Health, US News
Joe Yates
A man who spent a decade 'locked in his own body' recalled the 'horrific' sentence he'd heard his mother say to him.
Martin Pistorius was just a regular 12-year-old boy, growing up in South Africa in the 80s. However, in 1988, everything changed when he told his mom that he had a sore throat and a headache.
Despite thinking it was just a cold, Martin got worse and worse as the days progressed, eventually losing his appetite and constantly sleeping, with his brain also regressing in age.
Doctors were confused by Martin's condition and treated him for cryptococcal meningitis and tuberculosis of the brain, however, he developed a condition called 'locked-in syndrome' (LiS).
Advert
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, LiS is a condition which affects the nervous system, leaving a person completely paralyzed, except for the muscles that control eye movement.
While paralyzed, the person still has full consciousness, but they cannot speak.
His parents, Joan and Rodney Pistorius, were then told to take care of him until he died, with his last words to them being: "When home?"
Martin had LiS for over a decade - four of those years were spent in vegetative state.
Talking about his experience, he told LADbible in April: "For me, that feeling of complete and utter powerlessness is probably the worst feeling I have ever experienced, and I hope I never have to experience again."
"It is like you don't exist, every single thing in your life is decided by someone else.
"Everything, from what you wear, to what you eat and drink, even if you eat or drink, to where you will be tomorrow, or next week, and there is nothing you can do about it."
Around his 16th birthday, Martin recalled hearing people talking about whether to 'shave' the stubble on his chin, adding: "It scared and confused me to listen to what was being said because, although I had no memories or sense of a past, I was sure I was a child and the voices were speaking about a soon-to-be man.
"I was able to hear, see and understand everything around me but I had absolutely no power or control over anything."
Looking after their son placed a lot of strain on Rodney and Joan, and they argued a lot due to the stress.
And one night, his mother turned to him, unaware that he could hear her, and told him: "I hope you die."
She later told NPR in 2015: "I know that’s a horrible thing to say. I just wanted some sort of relief. Oh, that’s horrific when I think about it now.”
Martin said: "The rest of the world felt so far away when she said those words. As time passed, I gradually learned to understand my mother's desperation.
"Every time she looked at me, she could see only a cruel parody of the once-healthy child she had loved so much."
In 2001, he met therapist Virna van der Walt - she worked out that Martin still had 'a sparkle in his eye' and speculated that he was conscious.
This then led his parents to buy a computer with communication software so he could talk to them.
More than two decades later, Martin has managed to make life his own - becoming a father, setting records and achieving a doctorate.
Updating his followers on his progress in an Instagram post, Martin said: "Since 2010 I have: graduated with a first class honors degree in computer science, learnt to drive, publish my book (Ghost Boy), given a TED Talk, started wheelchair racing, set a European record, been awarded a Doctorate, travelled far and wide, and become a father."