The story of a man who for many years was trapped in his own body

In 1988, Martin Pistorius, a healthy 12-year-old boy, unexpectedly began to have health problems until he fell into a state of minimal consciousness. Doctors said he was in a vegetative state and there was no way to help him. Everyone around him thought that Martin didn’t listen and didn’t understand anything. But they were wrong. The boy couldn’t control his own body and couldn’t even give any signal to the people who were next to him. Everything changed when, 13 years later, he was taken care of by a nurse named Virna.

O awesome.club he read and was moved by the autobiographical book by Martin Pistorius and believes that the story should be adapted for the cinema. We have no doubt that Martin’s life is not lacking in drama, suffering, overcoming and, of course, love. He check out the story now and prepare to be amazed.

Martin, his father and younger sister

In the 1980s, Martin Pistorius lived in South Africa. He was a completely healthy kid and he loved technology. At the age of 11, he fixed the electrical outlets in the house himself. Plus, he’s equipped his own room with an alarm made from LEGO bricks to protect it from his younger brothers, David and Kim.

One day in January 1988, Martin, then 12, came home from school complaining of a sore throat. Some time later, he had to stop going to school because his health started to deteriorate dramatically. Little by little, she stopped eating and slept many hours a day. Walking became more and more difficult and her body became fragile. The changes happened consciously. At first, Martin started to forget things, until he stopped performing the simplest tasks. In the end, he failed to recognize the faces of those closest to him.

Joan, Martin’s mother, gave him a family photo and every day showed him a video with images of his father, Rodney. But the references didn’t seem to make any more sense to him. At this point, the speech disorders started and Martin began to forget who he was and where he was. After a year, the teenager, lying in a hospital bed, said his last words: “When are we going home?”

Martin no longer looked like a thirteen-year-old. He had lost too much weight and his fingers looked like a bird’s claws. His body no longer responded to anything. He wasn’t paralyzed; he just couldn’t control the movements. The only thing he could do alone was eat the food his mother gave him.

That is, at that moment, Martin still maintained a minimal state of consciousness. It is a psychoneurological disorder in which the patient’s eyes remain open, the eyeballs rotate but do not fix a point, and often produce chaotic movements in the extremities. Speech no longer exists, nor is it possible to perceive emotional reactions and contact with the outside world is practically impossible. At the same time, basic functions such as breathing, functioning of the cardiovascular system, digestion and secretion of feces and urine are maintained.

Doctors did a huge amount of tests, evaluated whether the problem could be cryptococcal meningitis or tuberculosis, tried many treatments and nothing worked, he was admitted to a psychiatric clinic, because some doctors thought there was some disorder in this regard. After a year of trying, the South African doctors gave up and said there was nothing left to do but wait for the natural course of the disease. The scientific minds of other countries, such as the United States, Canada and England, declared that it was unlikely that anything could be done, as the local doctors had tried everything.

Martin was taken home and his mother, who had already quit her job, took care of him full-time. After a year, when Martin turned 14, his parents decided to take him every day to a hospital where he only stayed during the day. At night, they picked up their son and took him home. The father also took care of the son. He woke up very early every day, cleaned and dressed the boy, took him to the hospital and then went to work. In the afternoon, he would pick up Martin, bathe him, have dinner and put him to bed. During the night, he would wake up to check on his son. Martin was either in a wheelchair or lying down, not knowing what was happening around him. As he writes in his book, “I was lying there like an empty shell”. He stayed like that for months, until his consciousness returned.

At that time, Martin was 16 years old. Slowly but surely, he began to gaze, listen to what was happening around him, smell and, most importantly, reason. His body was still unresponsive and his limbs were shaking nonstop. Although he was conscious, he still felt like he was covered in cement. Doctors always exercised him, bending and stretching his arms and legs, but all he could do was take a few shuffling steps while someone held his arms.

His mind began to return to normal, and by age 19, he had fully recovered. Martin clearly understood who he was, where he was, and what was happening in the world. But since he couldn’t control his own body, he couldn’t say he was conscious. He was not a ‘vegetable’ with a baby’s mind, but was buried alive in his own body. Everyone around him started to treat him like a plant that needed to be watered and pushed somewhere. No one suspected that his consciousness had returned.

One day, Rodney got his son ready for bed and dressed him in silence. Martin tried to move his own urine with his hands and couldn’t. He got frustrated and started breathing harder.

“Son, are you okay? asked Rodney.

The young man stared at his father, trying to show that he was listening to him and that he understood everything.

“Let me take you to bed.”

After that, Martin realized that his attempts at communication were doomed to failure. Resigned to spend the rest of his days trapped in a dead body, he seemed to be on a desert island with no hope of salvation.

During that time, the family split into 2 groups. On the one hand, Martin and his father, who was always by his son’s side, taking care of him and trying to help him. On the other, Martin’s mother, who hardly approached her motionless son and only paid attention to the 2 other children. For many years there were many arguments in the family. Joan insisted on putting Martin in a special institution, but Rodney wouldn’t allow it. During a fight – and Martin understood everything that was going on – Joan, with tears in her eyes, looked at her son and slowly said, “You must die, you must die.” More than ever, that was Martin’s wish.

For the first two years Joan cared for her son tirelessly; in time, she realized that her son would never be the same again. Joan became depressed and tried to commit suicide. The help of Rodney and the doctors was essential for her to keep fighting. Doctors recommended that she talk less with her son, so as not to fall into depression. After these words, the mother began to act coldly towards Martin.

When he was 23 years old, a young woman named Virna started working as a nursing assistant at the institution where he was. As she was the only person Martin spoke to, he began to try to maintain eye contact with the nurse. She was sure that the young man didn’t listen to her or understand her, but he told her everything that happened in her life. He, with all his strength, looked into her eyes, but there was no way to show that he understood her. One day, she noticed that Martin aggressively exhaled when she asked a question. He also noticed a few faint smiles and what could have been nods. Virna told her colleagues this, but no one believed the intentions of Martin’s actions.

One afternoon, Virna saw a television interview about a woman who had fallen asleep after a stroke, and the scientists were able to restore her communication skills. Virna visited a medical center where experts are studying ways to help people who are unable to speak. She had little hope that specialists could help the boy regain speech. And he convinced his parents to take him to a center for alternative methods of communication at the University of Pretoria to have some tests done.🇧🇷 At that time, Martin was already 25 years old and had been in this situation for 9 long years.

The tests were time consuming and tiring and stirred a lot with the emotion of Martin, who was very afraid of failing. Still, he managed to keep his gaze fixed on images, stopped the arrow in the indicated quadrant (in a test) and, with the help of a switch, indicated one or another object. According to the movement of the eyes, the experts came to the conclusion that Martin listened to everything, understood reality perfectly well and had no mental deficiency.

After this great achievement, with great difficulty and for a year, Martin learned to communicate with the help of a computer and special software. He had to pick images and symbols on a board and use a switch to make the computer communicate. The young man ended up staying in the institution because he needed special care. Everyone knew that Martin listened to and understood the world around him, but he was still treated like an irrational child. Everyone did it except Virna.

The nurse, a beautiful, polite woman, told Martin everything. Little by little, he was falling in love with her. One day, he tried to show this and managed to lift his hand, which, still weak, then fell to the side of the boy’s inert body. Virna looked at Martin and said:

‘Do you think anything can happen between us?’ Sorry, Martin.

At that moment, the young man felt a pain he had never felt before: his heart was hurt.

Martin with his father, mother and sister, Kim

While trying to learn to deal with his suffering, Martin, with the help of a computer, learned to use some programs, answer calls and send emails. He started to understand computers and managed to configure the sound of the machine to his liking. By acquiring a new voice, he showed people at the health center his new method of communication. After the first few lines, people approached to congratulate him, something completely uncharacteristic in his life.

His body strengthened a bit, he learned to sit up, his neck muscles got stronger and he started wearing a belt that kept his head straight. Furthermore, his arm began to respond to his commands. Martin…