Martin Pistorius

Martin Pistorius (born 31 December 1975) is a South African man who developed an undiagnosed neurological disorder and was unable to communicate for 7 years.

When he was 12, he began losing voluntary motor control and eventually fell into a vegetative state for three years. He began regaining consciousness at around age 16 and achieved full consciousness by age 19, although he was still unable to control his body’s movements 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 her words. She told his parents, who sent him to the centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication at the University of Pretoria for testing, where they confirmed that 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 they married. He co-wrote his autobiography Ghost Boy with Megan Lloyd Davies, which was published in 2011. By that time, Pistorius had regained limited control over his head and arms, but still needed his speech computer to communicate with others. In 2018, it was announced that the couple were expecting a child, and Pistorius was wheelchair racing.

Early life During the late 1980s, Pistorius and his parents were living in South Africa, when at the age of 12 he slowly began developing symptoms that included losing the ability to move by himself. Doctors were unable to diagnose the exact ailment and believed it was cryptococcal meningitis and tuberculosis of the brain.

Pistorius eventually fell into a vegetative state that lasted four years, during which time doctors informed his parents that they did not expect Pistorius to re-awaken or survive for much longer. Upon her recommendations, Pistorius was sent to the Centre For Augmentative And Alternative Communication at the University of Pretoria around age 25. There, they confirmed that he was aware and could respond to statements. He has learned to use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to communicate with others. Their son, Sebastian Albert Pistorius, was born a few months later on 6 December.

Published work In 2011, Simon & Schuster published Pistorius' autobiography, Ghost Boy, which he co-wrote with Megan Lloyd Davies. The book met with a favourable response. By 2011, Pistorius had regained some control over his head and arms and could communicate with others via a computer equipped with text-to-speech software. video1 = Martin Pistorius, My Way Back to Words, TED Talks, 14:31

Pistorius's story found a considerably larger audience after being featured on the first episode of NPR's podcast Invisibilia, titled "The Secret History of Thoughts".

In 2015, at the TEDx event in Kansas City, Pistorius described how he freed himself from a life locked inside his own body in his talk "How my mind came back to life – and no one knew" and how he suffered from extensive abuse from his caregivers, including sexual abuse. In 2018, he made a video describing his illness and recovery, and the experience of being fully conscious but unable to communicate.