Man awakens after 12 years in coma, says he was aware of ‘everything’

FOX2 St. Louis Link
South Africa.. late 80's... 12-year old boy falls into coma, allegedly from meningitis.
Doctors gave him no chance, but his parents stuck with it and took care of him daily.
Here comes the kicker... about two years into his coma he becomes AWARE but can't move or communicate in any way.
Now he can get around in a wheelchair and talks through a computer. Not bad for someone doctors said would surely die.
Now he wrote a book about his experience
Ghost Boy: My Escape From A Life Locked Inside My Own Body“

Pretty incredible stuff. I can only imagine my own body acing as a prison cell for 12 long years.

a reply to: o0oTOPCATo0o

It happens to a lot of people it's called "locked in syndrome" it can be brought on after a stroke amongst other things and some people have been locked in for a lot longer than 12 years.

Terrible condition.

a reply to: o0oTOPCATo0o

I can't think of anything worse than that. Sometimes I become aware of sounds and am aware of my surroundings for an agonizing 3-5 seconds before I can open my eyes and move. My heart is beating harder just thinking about it. I'm writing as fast I can so I can post it and hopefully forget all about it. Thanks for ruining my morning.

HA! Just kidding about ruining my morning.
Well.... maybe not.

a reply to: Spader

I created an account just to write my first thread about something like this. I hope you end up reading it, because it may blow your mind.

It may end up being more cruel to allow someone to live that way for years than to end their life. It would be a living nightmare.

I read an article about Martin Pistorios yesterday in the Washington Post and it was pretty horrifying.

Meet the man who spent 12 years trapped inside his body watching ‘Barney’ reruns

Perhaps no other word better describes the onetime fate of Martin Pistorius, a South African man who spent more than a decade trapped inside his own body involuntarily watching "Barney" reruns day after day.

"I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney," Martin told NPR during the first episode of a new program on human behavior, "Invisibilia."

I can't imagine the loneliness and depression that being stuck in that situation could cause. It makes you wonder where the heck God is in all this ....

Being locked in would be bad enough, but having to suffer through 12 years of Barney reruns on top of that? That is like, my literal definition of what I imagine Hell is like.

a reply to: jjkenobi
It might also be an incredible opportunity. Yes it would be difficult to take care of a person like that, but I would be greatful to wake up after a comma. Also, the knowledge after waking that would be available would be valuable.

a reply to: o0oTOPCATo0o

Standing instructions:
Do not pull the plug no matter what DR's tell you. I don't need you there daily. Don't ruin your life.
Do whatever you want in the interim, sell all my things if you need to but make no mistake --I'll be back.

I am even too scared to type in this thread. The horror. That poor guy.

a reply to: o0oTOPCATo0o


Oh man I listened to the interview a few nights ago...fascinating...if folks are interested it's about a 30 minute audio interview titled "locked in a man"..

Link

I keep on imagining how difficult it must be for him now. besides Barney and people around him talking, he has no idea what has been happening in the world. Imagine having a 6th grade education and only other peoples conversations to keep your mind sharp.
Imagine all the questions he couldn't ask. People talking about new technologies, TV shows, movies, ect.
He was probably so confused.

nm

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: o0oTOPCATo0o

Standing instructions:
Do not pull the plug no matter what DR's tell you. I don't need you there daily. Don't ruin your life.
Do whatever you want in the interim, sell all my things if you need to but make no mistake --I'll be back.

I told my wife pretty much the same thing. I'm adding, "make sure they're not looping Barney on the TV" to my instructions.

a reply to: intunewithmyself

Where is the thread your talking about? I checked your pro and it shows that you have no threads...

originally posted by: InverseLookingGlass
a reply to: o0oTOPCATo0o

Standing instructions:
Do not pull the plug no matter what DR's tell you. I don't need you there daily. Don't ruin your life.
Do whatever you want in the interim, sell all my things if you need to but make no mistake --I'll be back.

I would so much rather be dead than this.


Please pull my plug by any & all means necessary.

originally posted by: o0oTOPCATo0o
FOX2 St. Louis Link
South Africa.. late 80's... 12-year old boy falls into coma, allegedly from meningitis.
Doctors gave him no chance, but his parents stuck with it and took care of him daily.
Here comes the kicker... about two years into his coma he becomes AWARE but can't move or communicate in any way.
Now he can get around in a wheelchair and talks through a computer. Not bad for someone doctors said would surely die.
Now he wrote a book about his experience
Ghost Boy: My Escape From A Life Locked Inside My Own Body“

Pretty incredible stuff. I can only imagine my own body acing as a prison cell for 12 long years.

After a spinal surgery in 1985, I lost a lot of blood. A 3 hour surgery turned into a 10 hour surgery. Now the surgeons knew I lost some blood, but not the extent that I had. I went into a two week coma afterward. It is extremely trippy because you CAN see and hear everything going on around you. You shout to be heard but they can't hear you. You try to move your body, anything to be noticed and nothing happens. It's as if you are paralyzed right down to your eyeballs. (My eyes move from side to side when I sleep normally, obviously I couldn't even get them to do that to get noticed during the coma.) After I began choking on my own bile, and nurses cam running, they began putting tubes down my nose into my stomach. They kept saying swallow (to get the tube to go down), meanwhile I'm shouting, "I AM!" and of course, not being heard. Eventually after the doctors ran blood work and found I was very severely anemic and needed more blood did I finally come out of the coma. I can honestly say it is a VERY bizarre experience.

a reply to: Anyafaj
Glad you made it back, bud.

By current laws he would be declared dead and issued a death certificate if this happened today.