A man has shared a terrifying reality of feeling trapped in his own body “like a ghost” for more than a decade. He was unable to talk, move or let anyone know he was awake. This is a shocking story of a 47-year-old man from South Africa, who lost out on his adolescent period after he returned from school after suffering from a sore throat when he was just 12 years old.
Martin Pistorius, a 47-year-old man, from Johannesburg, South Africa, came back from school suffering from a sore throat condition, when he was just 12 years old. His condition worsened rapidly and he was diagnosed with cryptococcal meningitis and tuberculosis of the brain. This left him weak and very soon he found out that he had lost the ability to speak and control his body’s movements. This resulted in him going mute and becoming wheelchair-bound.
His parents were informed that Martin Pistorius was diagnosed with an unknown degenerative disease which left him in a vegetative state and said he had less than two years to live. However, what no one was aware of was the fact that the young boy had regained consciousness after four years, but he was unable to talk or move, which made him feel like a prisoner in his own body. In an interview, he shared that he was able to “hear, see and understand everything around him”, but he had no power or control over anything. He added, “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 it again. It is like you don’t exist, every single thing in your life is decided by someone else.”
For about a decade, he alleged that people who were responsible for his care, abused him physically, verbally and sexually. He was shocked and filled with utter disbelief. He was hurt, saddened and angry and he began to long for the day when someone would notice that his mind was active again.
Finally, the year 2001 saw positive changes in his life. He was 25 when he used to stay at the daycare and Virna van der Walt, an aromatherapist there was “convinced” that he was reacting to what she was saying. Within a year, he could use computer programs to communicate and gradually, his body began to regain strength.
He finally got a job as a photocopier and then landed a job in computing. He also got a dog he had been wanting to get for years. In 2008, he met his now-wife, Joan. Today, he is a husband, a son, a friend, a brother, a business owner, a first-class honours graduate and an amateur photographer.
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