AFTER BEING STUCK INSIDE A BODY FOR OVER 10 YEARS, THIS GUY FINALLY BREAKS HIS SILENCE!

 

Born as a normal healthy boy and growing up like any other ordinary toddler, this boy was cherished by both his parents. He was all well and good as he spent his first early years as a boy, but soon terror was about to strike what was seemingly a perfect life. Martin Pistorius soon turned the age of 12 and everything started changing. There was a debilitating illness consuming his whole body. The doctors did not know how to help him and soon his mind and body became fully paralyzed.

Something Unusual

So at the age of just 12 years, Martin could not use his body or even speak his mind. He had been living that way for about twelve years until he could slowly heal up again. He underwent a very slow progress with his health but still, to see that he was doing better was certainly a relief for all. However, when he regained his ability to communicate, he made a confession that left everyone stunned…

South African

When Martin Pistorius was born, his parents were so happy to have a new son who seemed perfect in all aspects. He was just like any other little boy. He was a very playful child who was always watching his cartoons and was obsessed with resistors, transistors and loved everything about electronics. His parents were quite keen on seeing that their boy was so enamored by this particular subject.

Falling Sick

Martin as a little boy was active and very well behaved. His love for electronics was something that his parents could not wait to see play out. And so during the early years of the 1980s, Martin was growing up alongside his parents in South Africa. They were one big happy family who got along very well. The whole family seemed perfect by the books until Martin began to fall sick.

Finding Doctors

Martin’s life, in the beginning, did not show signs that he would turn out that way at all. As just 12 years old Martin was feeling a little sick and had complaints about a sore throat. The family did not think much of it at first since sore throats are common in youngsters. However, the more the doctor visits were, the more severe his illness started to get. Martin’s parents soon feared that it would be more serious than they thought.

Unique Sickness

So what appeared to be a sore throat was now getting a little more serious than ever expected. After doctors ran tests, they found out what Martin was suffering from. It seemed he had come down with a rare form of cryptococcal meningitis and tuberculosis of the brain. It does not take a scientist to know how serious that is. Soon his motor functions did not function and it got worse as time went on…

Symptoms Continue

His parents soon learned what they feared most, that Martin’s medical condition was something incurable. It was also unfortunate that the symptoms became progressively worse as time went on. This was certainly not a good sign at all. Martin ultimately lost the ability to move entirely, he was paralyzed completely. And that was not even all, he even lost the ability to make an eye contact.

Losing More Abilities

As his condition worsened, you would think that this would be enough for the poor boy. But then, something even worse happened to the poor boy. Martin then lost his ability to speak! This innocent boy’s fate was certainly doomed and he did not deserve this at all. You could even say that this boy was in a coma of sorts and was nothing more than a vegetable now. 

Waiting For His Time

To see their little boy go from a healthy and active one to an immobile piece of a body would certainly break any parent’s heart. So when Martin’s parents, Rodney and Joan Pistorius saw their son turn out this way, they begged the doctors to do whatever they could to fix him. Their only wish was for their lovely son to get back his motor functions and his ability to communicate…

Keep Him Home

His parents were so desperate to get their son back to being healthy and fine again. Imagine having a son only for him to turn out to be paralyzed? Yes, even you would certainly do what you can to fix him, right? The doctors just advised his parents to keep Martin comfortable at home until the time for his death came. But the only thing was, Martin, did not die…

A Dad’s Duty

It was as though the Pistorius’ son had been imprisoned in his own body. He was not living but was not dying either. It was such a tragic way to spend his time here on earth. By the time Martin turned 14 years old, it was clear that he was not going anytime soon. His parents felt helpless but then promised that they would keep him as comfortable as they possibly could…

After Every 2 Hours

Since the doctors told Martin’s parents that they should just keep him home, they did not have a choice but to do as they said. So it then began as home care visits during the day. Since doctors could not be there all the time, during the night time, Martin’s father would be in charge. Martin’s dad would wake up every two hours just to fix his son from getting bed sores.

Daily Routine

Martin’s mom and dad tried everything in their power to make him as comfortable as they possibly could. Since his parents quickly realized that they were not able to do this alone, they decided to enlist him at a local care center. His dad would get up at 5 o’clock daily in the morning, get Martin all ready so that he could drop him to get to the care center where experts can deal with him better.

For Years

His parents tried very hard to do what they could to keep him comfortable but it turned out to be a little too much to handle for them. So after Martin was dropped into the care center, he would spend eight hours there and his father would then come to get him again. He would take Martin home, feed him then get him to go to bed. This was the routine that they followed for many years…

Stressed Mom

As a mother of an ailing boy, Joan Pistorius was slowly starting to lose her grip. Since her son was not showing any signs of progression, she was slowly losing her hope. Martin’s mother sometimes felt like she was not capable of giving what her son needed. She felt inadequate and often felt like the burden that had fallen on her to attend to her son’s needs was unbearable.

Her Confession

On one of the days when Joan was feeling really low, she got close to her son and blurted out loud, “I hope you die.” This was her way of asking God if he would just do them a favor and take their son away from his misery on earth. If you think about it, this might have been better for what Martin’s whole family was going through. She was informed that he was not capable of hearing anything too…

Slowly Waking Up

The whole family had to clock their timing according to Martin’s needs for a long while. But by the time he turned the age of 16, Martin started to regain his consciousness. In the beginning, he was not able to hear or sense anyone else around him. He had been living like this for quite some time. But then, he soon started to sense other next to him, gaining back his consciousness.

Hearing Everything

Even though Martin was not able to communicate anything yet, he had slowly started to gain his senses so he was aware of most things. Martin had actually heard all the mean things his mother had shouted out during her distressed times. He heard all her curses during her time of despair. However, since he could not move at all, he was not able to respond in any way…

Here But Not Quite

Even though Martin had spent so much time unable to hear, feel or say anything, things were slowly changing. After some time, Martin was able to sense everything, just like any normal person would be able to. However, there was still one problem, he still could not express how he felt. He was still unable to move his eyes, or wiggle a toe, his brain and his body still did not sync properly.

Realization

So what was the worst part for poor Martin? Well, it certainly must be the realization. To learn that he was a boy in a man’s body would certainly be a discouraging feeling. He had spent all these years unable to move or sense anything so he never had the chance to grow or progress as a normal human being. You could even say he was trapped inside his own self.

Trapped Forever

Since Martin had been paralyzed like this for such a long time, his progress was not noticed straight away by his family. His dear family was so accustomed to him being absent that they ignored him. They had been convinced that there was no way for Martin to ever recover from his condition. So even if Martin hint them that he had progressed, they would still not see the signs he was showing.

A Doomed Life

Martin soon figured that his fate was doomed. He realized that he was going to be trapped in his own mind, alone and lonely for his whole life. The only company he would ever get would be his own thoughts. His life was set to be doomed from the time he got sick. He was never going to get the chance to meet friends, find love and make a family of his own. He would get a chance to work in electronics…

Ignore Them

So what was a guy to do? Here he was unable to do whatever he wanted, not able to move one arm or even bring himself to blink his eyelids. There was only one thing left for Martin Pistorius to do. His only option was to leave his thoughts behind. He had to turn his mind blank in order to just keep himself from feeling bad about his living condition. Martin soon began to just get himself to become numb.

Not All Under Control

Since he felt helpless and so alone, there was only one solution he could come up with in his mind. If he just kept his mind blank, then in a way he could become less disappointed in how he was. He allowed himself to dissolve in the darkness and vanish. Unfortunately, there were a lot of things that poor Martin could not control even though he tried his best to maintain how he dealt with himself.

“I Love You…”

To see a boy who cannot speak or move at all left an impression on everyone around Martin. The entire world already had an impression of Martin to be a vegetable, so what did they do? Well, they thought since he cannot react, they could get away with whatever they wanted to do. They would just place him in front of a TV and left him there unattended for hours.

Couch Potato

Even though Martin’s mother and father had a lot of faith in the care center they placed him in, it would turn out to be uglier than one could ever imagine. The staff working there at the special care center would often leave him for hours right in front of the TV.  They would make him sit there and constantly watch shows for kids such as Barney & Friends. The cruelty was only growing there…

A Cruel Care Center

While Martin’s parents thought that they were doing him a favor, it turned out, Martin was filled with dread to go to the care center each day. It was to like what they had protracted themselves at all. In fact, each day, Martin would have his hair pulled and they would make his eyes water. Also, they would crash the metal spoon against his teeth and force-fed him every day. Some would curse and yell at him excessively.

Even More

This was not all. There were other torturous things that the employees at the care center would often do to the poor boy. They would even feed him searing hot tea or soup if ever Martin got sick, or would just slap him around for the fun of it. Since they knew very well that he would not be able to fight back, Martin was taken advantage of by the staff there.

Unforgivable?

One of the worst things to ever happen to the helpless boy was the fact that he had been abused sexually. There was a woman would enter his room just to straddle Martin to simulate intercourse with him. She even touched his private parts and fondled them knowing damn well that this guy cannot retaliate or respond. He wished he could run away and inform someone about all these…

His Only Prayer

Martin had been silently suffering from all of these physical and mental abuses at the place where he was supposed to get better care than at home. Since he could not express anything, in his head he was wishing he had a way to report what they were doing to him, to get them to stop. Martin did not give up and braved each day hoping one day he would be free from all this.

A Nagging Thought

Even though he wished to be aloof from all the things that were happening to him, Martin was only human so a lot of things got to him. He was focusing hard on things that were not positive. All the negative points directed towards him were taking a toll on him mentally. It was indeed a very difficult challenge to get over things like his mother fiercely yelling, “I hope you die.”

High Time

Even though he was going through a lot at the center, nothing could top how pathetic he felt when his mom spoke those words. He was now constantly in a mental battle to try and get over all these hideous things that happened to him. He had always wondered what drove his mother to say such a vile word at all. It was high time he tried to understand the level of frustration and sorrow his parents must be dealing with.

Mind Reframed

After some time had passed, Martin started being able to re-engage with his thoughts. he had tried very hard to keep them away and not get in touch with his mind as he felt it was meaningless to do so. Martin was certain that in order for him to completely heal and fight the depression and loneliness he suffered from, he would have to sharpen his mind some more.

A Miracle?

After focusing on himself, he began slowly feeling better. He was connected with his mind and he learned that he was feeling better. Miracles began to happen because not only was his mind progressing even his body was getting better. It was clear that his neurons were starting to reknit. Slowly but surely, Martin was becoming himself. he started off with self-awareness and soon movement came into being.

Small Movements

And very soon Martin was able to make small movements. With sheer determination and patience, he was finally able to move his body, bit by bit. But since his parents and caregivers were so used to seeing him immobile, they didn’t notice that he was making slight movements by himself. They would look at these small movements as mere twitching of his body.

Getting Noticed

This went on for a while and even though Martin was making a lot of progress, there was still so much he needed to do to get noticed. After staying like this for a while, one day, Virna van der Walt, who works as an aromatherapist, began to take notice. As soon as he saw that Martin would react to specific statements or questions, he knew that the boy was slowly getting better.

Silver Lining

Living majority of his life paralyzed and in the mercy of others must have certainly been an awful way to live life. But finally, at the age of 25, Martin Pistorius was able to regain his full consciousness and some very important parts of his mobility.  He had persisted and was now better than ever before. He could even bring himself to forgive his parents for saying what they did to him…

Life Changes

So how was Martin able to forgive his parents, especially his mother who had actually wished for him to die? Well, after a while he realized that at times the tension and frustration became unbearable. This was not the only thing that had changed in Martin’s life. After a short while, Martin met his wife Joanne who works as a social worker, on the internet. And by 2009, he asked for her hand in marriage.

Life Gets Better

Martin and Joanne after getting married decided to settle in Harlow. After meeting online, they knew they were definitely meant for each other. Even though things are better, there are so many things that act as obstacles for Martin. He needs to speak with the aid of a voice synthesizer, but overall the lessons that he had learned from being trapped inside his own body has made him strong.

Getting A Degree

There was so much that needed to be learned by Martin after regaining his senses. He had come this far so he was not about to stop there. After getting back his consciousness, he went on to relearn all of his essentials like math, the alphabet, but he was very quick with this. To say that Martin learned all the basics quickly would be an understatement because he even got himself a degree.

Focus And Drive

Martin had his next goal set, and it was to learn how to drive. The only thing he needed to do was get an adapted car and an instructor. He had mastered controlling his electric wheelchair and also managed to pass the theory test in driving superbly. He soon became a skilled driver and proved once again that anyone can do anything they put their mind to…