Today, I bring you heart warming news of one man’s coma battle. Martin Pistorius had been in a vegetative coma for twelve years since catching meningitis back in the 1980s. Fortunately, for Martin, he was able to come out of his coma to the astonishment of not only his family but the medical establishment. Even more astonishing, he was able to recall what was going on around him and had been conscious for ten of his twelve years in a coma.
Read about his story.
According to NPR news, his father would get up at 5 o’clock in the morning, get him dressed, load him in the car, take him to the special care center where he’d leave him. Rodney said, “Eight hours later, I’d pick him up, bathe him, feed him, put him in bed, set my alarm for two hours so that I’d wake up to turn him so that he didn’t get bedsores.”
For twelve years, Martin’s family cared for him without any sign that he was improving. Joan started to despair and even told her son, “I hope you die.”
Today she acknowledges that was a horrible thing to say but says she just wanted some sort of relief. Remarkably, now Martin is 39-years-old and says he was totally aware of everything going on around him.
If ever there was an answer about whether or not those in a vegetative state possess awareness, it’s found in the story of Martin Pistorius. He fell into a coma likely brought on by cryptococcal meningitis in the 1980s. However, after 12 years in a vegetative state, Pistorius has shocked not only his family — but the world — by recently coming out of his coma, and by also informing them of something that’s often wondered by people, but not necessarily confirmed: He was aware of his surroundings the majority of the time.(1)
His story provides hope while also offering insight as to whether or not those in a coma are capable of comprehending the environment around them. Pistorius, who is now 39, says that about two years into his comatose state, he started waking up. However, he was unable to convey this through voice and expression. Although he says he was “aware of everything, just like any normal person,” he was sadly thrust into a world that denied the possibility of this, because of his condition. As such, he sadly recalls the time his own mother, fueled with frustration over her son’s health, said to him that she wished he’d die. All is forgiven though. “As time passed,” he said, “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.”(1)
His waking up also shows that perhaps keeping a patient in a stimulating, thought-provoking environment can benefit their mental health.
For example, Pistorius recalls many of hospital staff members keeping nothing but the purple “I love you, you love me” singing dinosaur on the television in his room. He craved to learn more about the world around him, but, convinced that he was unaware, nurses left him with endless repeats of the popular childhood TV program. “I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney,” he said.(1)
Today, he is now married and has written a book appropriately titled Ghost Boy. A description of the book says, “Through Martin’s story we get a glimpse what it is like to be unable to communicate yet feeling and understanding everything. Martin’s emergence from his darkness enables us to celebrate the human spirit and is a wake-up call to cherish our own lives.”
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