Man Awakens From 12 Year Coma With Disdain for 'Barney'

DiamondSmiles · #1 ● 01-14-2015, 08:20 PM

A British man awoke from a coma believing that he was Academy award winning actor, Matthew McConaughey and speaking French.

When a man came out of a coma after 12 years, he said he was aware of everything going on while in that vegetative state. Martin Pistorious was only 12 years old when a disease took over his body and eventually put him in a coma, according to Fox 40 News on January 13.

He felt doomed because he couldn't communicate with anyone. Today, he shares that horrendous ordeal along with some of the things frightening to hear.

Doctors were never completely sure what caused Pistorius' illness that eventually ended in this vegetative state, but they suspected it was cryptococcal meningitis.

Martin's 12 years in a coma were a nightmare, he was aware he was there, but he couldn't speak or move a muscle to tell anyone that he was awake in his mind. "I was aware of everything, just like a normal person," Martin said in a recent interview.

According to WGNTV News, his family never gave up on Martin. They started a daily routine with him and didn't sway from that routine through his entire ordeal. Martin's best estimate is that he started to wake up about two years into his coma.

By that time, people were so used to him in this state that they talked around him as if he wasn't there. He also heard some things that were a bit hard for him to hear.

He does remember his mom, Joan Pistorious, say to him, "I hope you die." This was done out her love for her son after seeing him living this almost non-existent life day after day. He was just laying there in a vegetative state and his parents weren't given any hope that he would come out of this coma from the doctors in South Africa, where Martin lives.

Even with the doctors telling his parents that he would die soon, they never stopped their daily routine of dressing him, feeding him and putting him to bed each and every day.

Every two hours, Martin would need to be turned in his bed so he wouldn't develop bed sores. His parents set an alarm that would go off every two hours and they would make sure this was done.

The guilt from Martin hearing her say, "I hope you die," haunts his mom today, but Martin understands her meaning behind saying this. It was from, "her own sadness," watching him live this, "bleak existence," Martin said. He also said that he felt, "doomed," as there was no way to communicate with the people around him.

After being a prisoner in his own body for more than a decade he came out of it with disdain for the kid's show, "Barney." He was brought to an adult daycare center by his family during the day and he and other patients were plunked in front of the TV with children's shows playing.

Once he started to be present again nobody noticed because they were just so used to him being in a coma. Today, Martin can speak via his computer and he is in a wheelchair, so he is mobile. His awareness has fully returned. His book is titled, "Ghost Boy: My Escape from a Live Locked Inside My Own Body," which is the way he felt while trapped in his body. He was a world he couldn't climb out of and in a world that no one else could tap into.

You can listen to excerpts from Martin's book and the NPR interview with him and his parents here from NPR.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015...an-breaks-free

Strange things have been known to happen to people after coming out of a coma. One such story is told above in the video. It is a story of a man who recently woke up from a coma speaking French and he also truly believed he was a famous movie actor.

I always believed people could hear you when they were in a coma or, "out of it." Martin has confirmed that for me.

After my mother's stroke, I took a radio and asked that they put one of two stations on. I also believe music can heal.

Martin is one of at least two others who also thought they were McConaughey and speaking French.

The fourth photo is the last family photo from 1987, before Martin fell ill.

commondenom · #2 ● 01-15-2015, 01:58 AM

actually a south african man...

pretty cool story this.... must be nuts to be zombiefied like that....like real nightmare stuff

spudigitti · #3 ● 01-15-2015, 04:29 AM

Any relation to oscar

DiamondSmiles · #4 ● 01-15-2015, 05:26 AM

Originally Posted by spudigitti ↗

Any relation to oscar

I hope not!

He would probably block out that part of his life.

Oswald2001 · #5 ● 01-15-2015, 10:09 AM

"Look what I can do!"

- Stuart

ralucagymnast · #6 ● 01-15-2015, 10:51 AM

Wow; as someone said I always had a feeling that people in a comatose/persistent vegetative state were very much aware of what was going on around them. Scary stuff for sure. Being locked into a body which wont work, but being sentient and lucid. Amazing story.