Posted on 01/17/2015 4:41:55 PM PST by kindred
Cases like this are fueling a growing debate about the accuracy of "vegetative state" and "brain death" diagnoses.
airlift(Harlow, England) - Martin Pistorius hates Barney. And it's no wonder why. For 12 years, while he was in a coma that doctors described as a "vegetative state," nurses, thinking that he couldn't see or hear anything, played endless re-runs of Barney as he sat, strapped into his wheel chair. (Photo via Life Site News)
But Martin wasn't the "vegetable" that doctors said he was. In fact, he could see and hear everything.
"I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney," he recently told NPR.
In the 1980s, Martin was a typical active youngster growing up in South Africa. But, then, at age 12, he came down with an illness that baffled doctors, and that eventually resulted in him losing his ability to move his limbs, then to make eye contact, and finally to speak.
His parents, Rodney and Joan Pistorius, were told that he was a "vegetable" and the best thing for them to do was take him home and keep him comfortable until he died.
But the youngster continued to live despite the diagnosis.
"Martin just kept going, just kept going," his mom said.
Now, in a new memoir, "Ghost Boy: My Escape From a Life Locked Inside My Own Body," Martin has revealed that, although he was initially unconscious as doctors thought, after about two years he started waking up, eventually becoming fully conscious of everything around him.
Martin's dad, Rodney, cared for his son throughout the ordeal, and recalls the daily routine of rising at five in the morning to get Martin ready for a day at a special care center.
"Eight hours later, I'd pick him up, bathe him, feed him, put him in bed, set my alarm for two hours so that I'd wake up to turn him so that he didn't get bedsores," Rodney said in the NPR report.
Martin remembers, however, that his mom at one point lost hope, and while gazing at her son and thinking he could not hear her, said "I hope you die."
But he did hear her.
"Yes, I was there, not from the very beginning, but about two years into my vegetative state, I began to wake up," Martin said.
"I was aware of everything, just like any normal person. Everyone was so used to me not being there that they didn't notice when I began to be present again. The stark reality hit me that I was going to spend the rest of my life like that – totally alone."
A "wish I never said that moment" for sure. Whether or not, the man said it was some two years before he awoke inside his own head and heard all this. A scary thing this is.
Well, as the years went by, maybe Martin himself wished he would die.
a lesson would be not to assume someone can’t hear or understand you and treat them with dignity and respect.
Wouldn't that be considered torture?
One of the first things I learned in nursing school is to always watch what you say around patients.
Hearing, it’s said, is the last sense to go.
A posting of a different article a few days ago if anyone
is interested in reading over 100 comments thereon:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3246186/posts
The article is not clear on if the fellow’s mother is still alive, and if they have much of a relationship.
We ALL hate Barney.
If Jeb had his way he would just starve him to death.
bump
I do’lt like JEB, but he DID try....I remember it well....he did all he could do. BLAME the CORRUPT JUDGE and the HUSBAND WHO KILLED HER!! Geesh.
I don’t really understand how Jeb becomes the lightning rod and the guilty party in the case. Is the expectation that the Governor should throw out the court? Can he? Should he? If so, fine, I just don’t quite understand how “Jeb killed Terri.”
Lots of people would criticize a parent who had said that, but I’ve got to admit, if they cared for their son in that situation day in and day out for 12 years, I’m kind of amazed they only said something like that once. I can’t help but admire parents with that kind of devotion and sense of responsibility.
Yep, Terri Shiavo was in a vegetative state as well.
She was starved to death and was aware every second of the torture inflicted upon her.
As governor of the state Jeb could have had Terri taken into custody by the Florida State Police.
The mother is still alive and Martin says that part of his locked-in time was spent thinking about and understanding his mother’s heartbreak at seeing and weariness in caring—for years— for this apparent husk that was once her son.
Not true at all....Constitutional crisis. The JUDGE and mostly the HUSBAND are GUILTY of MURDER.
My youngest sister had a heart attack, she was pronounced dead, then they got a pulse, but they called it a persistent vegetative state.
I told my brother in law to keep trying. He did.
And she eventually woke up.
But she was different... she would be having a normal conversation with you, then all the sudden like start talking about buying paper towels or something else that has NO connection to the reality she was part of.
After a bit she would be normal again.
It’s very odd.
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