For
13 long years, that was Martin Pistorius’s reality. After contracting a brain
infection at the age of twelve, Pistorius lost his ability to control his
movements and to speak, and eventually he failed every test for mental
awareness. He had become a ghost.
But
then a strange thing started to happen — his mind began to knit itself back
together. In this moving talk, Pistorius tells how he freed himself from a life
locked inside his own body.
Martin
Pistorius is a South African freelance web designer, developer, and author, best
known for his 2011 book Ghost Boy, in which he describes living with locked-in
syndrome and being unable to move for 12 to 14 years. He began losing voluntary motor control and
eventually fell into a coma for three years. He began regaining consciousness
around age 16 and achieved full consciousness by age 19, although he was still
completely paralyzed with the exception of his eyes.
He
was unable to communicate with other people until his caregiver Virna van der
Walt noticed that he could use his eyes to respond to things she said. She sent
him to the University of Pretoria for testing, where they confirmed he was
conscious and aware of his surroundings.
His
parents then gave him a speech computer, and he began slowly regaining some
upper body functions. In 2008 he met his wife Joanna through his sister Kim and
in 2009 the pair was married. He co-wrote his autobiography Ghost Boy with
Megan Lloyd Davies, which was published in 2011. As of 2011, Pistorius has
regained limited control over his head and arms but still needs his speech
computer to communicate with others.
Hear
this miraculous tale straight from the horse’s mouth :
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