This is an amazing story of a man who "slept" for more than a decade, who just refused to die, and who woke up and confessed that he's been aware of everything all along.
Martin Pistorius from South Africa was an energetic boy who was very interested in electronics. One day he developed cryptococcal meningitis, a type of meningitis caused by a fungus that's found in the soil all over the globe. It was in the later part of the 1980s.
Although it's common among patients with meningitis to be critical, he fell into a vegetative state where he lost his ability speak and move. His doctor was so convinced he couldn't make it that he told his parents to finally take him home and make him as comfortable as possible until he finally dies.
Of course, he didn't. He just continued to live in such state for the next 12 years. Fortunately, his parents didn't either. Rather, they continued to take great care of him. His dad Rodney would usually begin his day as early as 5:00 a.m. so he could bring Martin to a health care facility. He didn't mind bathing, feeding, and dressing him. He also sacrificed his hours of sleep to get up and turn Martin to prevent bed sores.
In the second year of his condition, something happened. He grew a sense of awareness despite continuous loss of his ability to move. He learned about Barney and a wide range of TV shows. He even had his heart broken when his mother finally wished no parent would probably want for their children-that he finally dies-although he later understood that it was merely a cry of frustration and desperation.
By 25, somebody noticed his awareness, and since then, he was able to recover the rest of his being. He learned how to write, attend a school, and even get a job. He is now married and is a website designer. To chronicle his story, he wrote Ghost Boy.
