
Trapped in his body for 12 years, a man breaks free (2015) - varbhat
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/01/09/376084137/trapped-in-his-body-for-12-years-a-man-breaks-free
======
hansthehorse
While it's not really comparable to this case I spent months in a coma. My
wife tells me she was there 24/7 for the first week then hours after work
every day. I'm told my family visited everyday as they had worked out a
schedule. Every one them interacted with me or read to me or whatever. I
remember nothing of it. I feel it did nothing for my recovery but who can say.

I remember only a very long nightmare I couldn't wake from. One bad dream
after another. Normally I can wake myself from those types of dreams but this
was permanent. Later I had to go to therapy to try to rid myself from those
memories or at least learn to live with them. The therapist told me there was
no way to tell if I had that experience during coma or during the time the -
just short of od doses - drugs were withdrawn.

My waking experience was like swimming up to the surface of a clear blue ocean
from very deep below. I remember hearing a tiny voice asking me to squeeze a
finger and made a very small movement and remember a lot of shouting and
stuff. Wife tells me everyone who visited me did the same thing every day but
this one day I moved when she went through the ritual. When I became fully
awake after all the drugs had worn off I realized I could barely speak and
couldn't move my arms or legs. Months of rehab to follow. I still rage at
movies and TV where a coma victim wakes and it's like nothing ever happened.

This was 10 years ago and as you can see it still effects me deeply.

~~~
sebow
I'm extremely curious: after you woke up from the coma, did the
frequency/"intensity" of the dreams change at all?

~~~
hansthehorse
For the first week or 10 days I really couldn't tell the difference between
awake or asleep. My wife tells me I frequently asked her why she had abandoned
me in Alaska. I figure that was because it was pretty cold in the room. During
that time all the dreams I remember concerned not being able to move. After
that period I guess my body had flushed out all the drugs and a normal sleep /
dream cycle returned and the nightmares pretty much went away.

Two things seem to be permanent though. I used to be very heat sensitive,
preferring the winter to summer etc. Now it's the opposite. The other thing is
I developed blood flow problems to both of my hips which the doctors tell me
is probably due to the massive amounts of testosterone I was administered
while in the coma. I think it's a fair trade off for a second chance.

~~~
sterlind
Out of curiosity, why were you given testosterone?

------
wombatmobile
I listened to the whole podcast about Martin.

His family never gave up on him.

He was non-responsive for more than 11 years.

For most of that time, he could hear and understand.

Because he couldn't communicate, his life was a joyless experience.

Sometimes his carers were careless with him, hurting him. He couldn't respond.
One nurse abused him. He couldn't respond.

After many years, his mother told him she wished he would die.

He learned how to disengage from his thoughts. Just go to black. He became
good at that. It was joyless. "A very dark place to find yourself because in a
sense you are allowing yourself to vanish."

After years in this very dark place, one day he decided he'd had enough.

He began to re-engage with his thoughts. Over months, he learned to tell the
time by tracking the angle of the sun's rays in the room over the day.

Still, he couldn't move his body.

They'd sit him in front of the TV to watch Barney. He hated Barney.

One day he heard Whitney Houston on the radio, singing The Greatest Love of
All. When she sang "No matter what they take from me, they can't take away my
dig-ni-ty" he thought to himself, "Wanna bet?"

He embraced darkness and endured his own thoughts, moving through them,
gaining self-understanding.

Then, after a while, something changed and he could blink his eyes. I don't
know how long that took, or what the moment was like when he first made
contact again. The podcast doesn't detail that moment. It just skips to when
he could squeeze hands.

His mother bought him a joystick. It took him a year to learn how to use it.

He asked for coffee and forged ahead. Within two years he got a job with the
government. A nurse told him she had a problem with her computer. He fixed the
computer. Soon, he quit his job and started a web design company. He met a
woman over Skype. They hit it off and got married when he was 32 years old.

His face hurts from smiling so much.

~~~
forgotmypw17
My grandfather was on life support for less than a year, and they were talking
about unplugging him.

Then he recovered and lived another ~10 years.

~~~
pm2222
Was it in the US, what year and cost?

~~~
forgotmypw17
It was in the U.S., less than 20 but more than 10 years ago.

I don't know anything about the cost.

~~~
BugWatch
It's possible the previous commenter's "coAst" got autocorrected to "cost".

------
zeta0134
This is an interesting story, but unfortunately the article is a lengthy
advertisement for a larger program that does not appear to be available in
text form:

> To hear how Martin returned to life, listen to Invisibilia, NPR's newest
> program. The program debuts this weekend on many public radio stations, and
> the podcast is available for download at NPR.org and on iTunes.

Edit, because this is still floating near the top: It's an _older_ article,
and has been released in text transcript form after all:

[https://www.npr.org/2015/01/09/375928581/locked-
man](https://www.npr.org/2015/01/09/375928581/locked-man)

~~~
smoyer
I think the story is told better by Pistorius himself -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD1IX1AFRZg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD1IX1AFRZg)

~~~
nocman
Thank you very much for pointing this out.

This video is one of those things you could watch every year for a number of
different reasons -- all of them important ones.

~~~
smoyer
I have a list of inspirational videos that I rewatch periodically - here's
another one I watch every year or two:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24493750](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24493750)

------
markkanof
That line about the fathers routine really got to me. I find it a constant
challenge to do the daily routine with my completely healthy children. This
father got up at 5am, did the morning routine, then did the evening routine,
and it seemed to imply that he would also wake up every two hours during the
night to turn Martin. He did this for years despite being told that he was
really just waiting for his son to die. The amount of love and compassion this
guy showed for his kid is something I strive for every day with my own
children, but not sure I always achieve.

~~~
noir_lord
That you worry about it means you are a great parent.

I wish my father had put an ounce of thought into whether he was a good
father.

~~~
dmos62
The world is full of care and kindness: it's about being open to it. When
we're disappointed by people close to us, it's important to remember that love
is something than originates within, not without.

~~~
epicureanideal
Is this from [http://wisdomofchopra.com/](http://wisdomofchopra.com/)? /s

But seriously, can you explain what you mean by this?

~~~
Viliam1234
My guess would be that if someone doesn't love you even if you wish very much
they would, then thinking about that person is just prolonging your suffering.
Just stop. There are seven billion other people on this planet, pretty sure
many of them are nice.

But why would any of those many strangers love specifically you? One possible
reason is that people reciprocate love. So your best strategy is to become a
loving person yourself. And then, one of the people you meet, will return your
feelings.

And in the meanwhile, being a loving person already feels better than being
focused on your own misery, so this is a bonus. Actually, it would probably be
better to simply focus on being a loving person and not worry too much about
when people start to return your love. Just make sure you meet many people;
and if the strategy doesn't work for a while, change your environment.

With so many good people out there, don't waste your time trying to squeeze
some love out of the bad ones. The worst thing you can do to yourself is to
remain in a bubble with the bad people, because then it seems like the entire
universe is bad. (Oh, and if someone says "I may seem like a bad person to
you, but trust me that the others are even worse", they are lying; don't argue
with them, but go outside and try for yourself.)

~~~
memling
> But why would any of those many strangers love specifically you? One
> possible reason is that people reciprocate love. So your best strategy is to
> become a loving person yourself. And then, one of the people you meet, will
> return your feelings.

Is the purpose of love to be reciprocated? Is it worth loving if it isn't?

Genuinely curious about your thoughts, and not trolling, but this prompted
some interesting questions in my head and I was curious what you think.

~~~
Viliam1234
Humans have needs, and ignoring them probably wouldn't work well in long run,
no matter how noble it might sound in abstract. If your needs are constantly
frustrated, you will likely lose the motivation to do the noble things anyway.

Then again, there are differences among people with regards to their needs.
Like, an introverted person would probably be satisfied with a smaller number
of friends; but would probably still want more than zero.

To me it seems like it is important that some people reciprocate your
feelings, and then it is not important that others don't. Like, if you love 20
people and 3 of them love you back, it's okay, but if you love 20 people and
nobody loves you back, it's not okay. Of course the numbers are made up, may
be different for different people, and it also matters a lot who loves you
back and who doesn't, how specifically that love manifests, etc.

I would make an analogy that if you are a cook, and you prepare meals for
hundreds of people, and then you eat one meal yourself, that can make you
fully satisfied. If you cannot eat, you will starve, and it doesn't make it
any different for you whether you have prepared meals for other people or you
didn't. So while we can make a true argument that feeding hundreds of other
people is a great thing, that one meal that goes back to the cook is also
important.

Shortly, unreciprocated love can also make you happy, assuming that it is not
all that you have. Feeling secure about being loved gives you the privilege
that you can now be generous about the love you give, because you don't need
anything more in return, and if something comes anyway, it's a nice bonus.
Telling people who are currently not loved about how "loving others is better
than being loved" is a bit like telling starving people to stop focusing on
their hunger so much... the main message it delivers is that you actually
don't give a fuck about their sufering.

(Then, there are also people who never feel loved enough, because their mental
problems prevent them from having healthy relationships, and trying to give
them more love doesn't improve things at all, it just all vanishes in a black
hole... It's complicated.)

OK, now I am curious about your thoughts.

~~~
memling
Sorry for the delayed response--not out of unwillingness, but busy-ness.

Your original response made me think of a few questions, but I think in the
end it boiled down to asking what is the goal or purpose of love? Does it
dovetail with a goal of maximizing happiness? (It seems to me no--that love
can sometimes work towards our personal happiness and other times against it.)

We often use the word love in a multi-faceted way that would be better served
by multiple words. The ancient Greeks had (at least?) four words for love that
were roughly differentiated by familial love, friendship love, erotic love,
and an unconditional love. They varied, I suppose, in goal, expectation, depth
or quality of feeling, et c.

It seems like this last love was the sort that the father shows to his son.
There is no real hope of reciprocation, nor yet a sort of surface-level
happiness—indeed, it would be a very unhappy business for the most part. And
yes, I think to your point there is probably some sustaining relationships
there, too. At the same time, I expect there was pressure against him: remove
life support, your kid's a vegetable, no hope here, et c. This isn't a love-
nurturing environment exactly.

I guess what I'd say is that at least in some cases love seems to work against
our personal best interest, not for it, and that our happiness sometimes
realigns along different boundaries. I.e., that happiness is perhaps more
flexible than we might assume at first, and love perhaps a little less
flexible?

Again, just some ponderables. Thanks for the comment.

~~~
Viliam1234
> We often use the word love in a multi-faceted way that would be better
> served by multiple words.

It would be nice if we just stopped using "love" as an emphasis for "enjoy".
("I love hamburgers" = I enjoy the taste of hamburgers.)

Getting this one out of the way, it seems to me that the common component in
other forms of love is something like "your well-being makes me happy".

Mixing these two creates the greatest confusion, when "I love you" can mean "I
wish that you be well" or "I enjoy being with you". Especially because these
two do NOT have to be mutually exclusive: you can wish someone to be well AND
enjoy their presence and interaction with you at the same time. But you can
also enjoy interaction with someone, without caring about their well-being at
all. This gives us three combinations of what one could mean by "loving"
someone.

And the confusion goes like this: First, it takes some maturity to notice that
some people enjoy the presence of other people (because they can get fun or
sex or services or resources from them), but don't actually care about those
people's well-being at all. (In other words, they "love" other people in
exactly the same way they "love" their hamburgers.)

Then, the person who noticed this often over-reacts, and decides that if those
two things are not exactly the same, then they certainly must be the exact
opposites! It cannot be real love, if you derive any benefit whatsoever from
the other person. If you are sexually attracted to them, it cannot be the true
love! If you like it when they do something for you, or if they make you laugh
and you enjoy that, it cannot be true love either! And even if you do
something for them completely with no thought of reward, and you really get
nothing in return, but then you suddenly notice that thinking about their
happiness makes YOU happy... maybe deep down you were a horrible selfish
monster all the time; you only pretended to love other people, but actually
did this all only to give YOURSELF the happy feeling. Shame on you!

I wish this was a strawman, but see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism_(ethics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism_\(ethics\))
\-- a few famous philosophers actually supported this pathological, poisonous
idea. It can seriously hurt emotionally fragile people when you expose them to
this insanity pretending to be deep wisdom.

"Wishing other people to be well" is a thing; "enjoying interaction with other
people" is another thing; and when those two things happen to go together,
there is nothing wrong with that. Nothing prevents you from genuinely loving
people whose presence also makes you happy in other ways. It's actually easier
than way, because one kind of positive emotion prepares the way for other
kinds.

> four words for love that were roughly differentiated by familial love,
> friendship love, erotic love, and an unconditional love.

I'd say the last one is the unreciprocated love, and the first three include
some kind of expectation (different kinds). Yes, even a father loving his son
expects something in return; at the very least, that the son will not
knowingly try to hurt him. But usually there is also some expectation of
politeness, of possible cooperation in future when the son grows up, maybe of
care for the father when he gets old.

Enough theory. I guess the practical advice is to love others, love yourself,
and don't feel confused or guilty when the love is reciprocated.

------
mindcrime
Is anybody else reminded of the character from the song "One"[1] by Metallica,
and the movie/novel "Johnny Got His Gun"[2]? Granted, that was different in
that the situation resulted from a traumatic injury and the man lost his
limbs. But the idea of being "trapped in your body" \- unable to communicate,
aware of your own existence, but basically nothing else - seems similar.

    
    
        Darkness imprisoning me
        All that I see
        Absolute horror
        I cannot live
        I cannot die
        Trapped in myself
        Body my holding cell
    

I remember being terrified of this idea the first time I saw the video all
those years ago. I guess I still am. I just had no idea - until now - that a
situation like this could result from much of anything _other_ than a major
traumatic injury.

[1]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8bTdBs-
cw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8bTdBs-cw)

[2]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Got_His_Gun_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Got_His_Gun_\(film\))

~~~
V-2
I also recall a science fiction take on the theme. It was a short story by
Stanisław Lem. There's this mad scientist named Decantor, who killed /
immortalized his wife by copying her mind onto an indestructible crystal.

The consciousness persists and the mind keeps on thinking, and it can't die -
it's virtually immortal. That's the extra twist here. So, it's capable of
surviving for millions of years, likely outliving all life on the planet etc.,
but at the same time deprived of all senses and cut off from the external
world. Even an escape into insanity is impossible (since, I assume, there's no
biochemistry that could get out of balance).

The horrified narrator considers it as the worst torment imaginable, whereas
Decantor can't see it, as immortality - he points out - has always been
humanity's most profound longing.

~~~
bobloblaw45
Stephen King also wrote the short scifi story The Jaunt which is similar.

Basically a scientist makes a stargate type of device. Nonliving things that
go through end up fine but living things like mice would either immediately
just die or go absolute insane after exiting.

Long story short, the trip is instantaneous. But because they're traveling
outside of our normal space time is perceived differently by conciousnes
minds. So what seems like a split second to us on the outside things seem
almost endless on the inside. Like anywhere from millions of years to the age
of the universe. Endless time with nothing but their own thoughts. No body and
just white light. Humans they test it out on either also die or end up going
all Event Horizon when they exit.

They figured out a work around by knocking people out before putting then
through.

~~~
ewindal
Iirc ot’s easy to find online and pretty short. The ending is pretty haunting,
so I recommend everyone read it if it sounds interesting.

------
merricksb
If curious, see HN discussion from the time of publication:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8864791](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8864791)

From a comment at the top of that thread:

 _Here 's a link to the full transcript:
[http://www.npr.org/2015/01/09/375928124/dark-
thoughts](http://www.npr.org/2015/01/09/375928124/dark-thoughts) and
[http://www.npr.org/2015/01/09/375928581/locked-in-
man](http://www.npr.org/2015/01/09/375928581/locked-in-man)_

and,

 _There is video on YouTube where he is interviewed, he still can 't speak
though but other than that he appears fine. Well, maybe not great he is in a
wheelchair too. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBFntsxK-
vc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBFntsxK-vc)_

~~~
asciimo
Many people can be great in wheelchairs, too :)
[https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27554754](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27554754)

------
gpmcadam
I clicked this link and was redirect to the 'NPR Choice page'.

The options I had were:

    
    
      1. agree to some lenghty tracking and ad terms, or;  
      2. decline and visit the plain text site.
    

I'm happy with option 2, so I decline, but I'm redirect to the home page.

There's no way to visit this article by substituting 'www.' for 'text.' in the
URL, instead you get:

    
    
        > NPR.org Text-Only (go to NPR.org graphical version)
        > We're sorry, the page you requested is unavailable. Please go to our Contact page for more information.
    

So if you had this problem too, see the archive.org version of this article
below:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20200914175634/https://www.npr.o...](https://web.archive.org/web/20200914175634/https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2015/01/09/376084137/trapped-in-his-body-for-12-years-a-man-breaks-free)

~~~
mulmen
The URL scheme on text.npr.org is different from www. Text.npr.org just uses
an "sId" to identify stories but not the headline text like the www site. You
can find the sId in the www url immediately after the date.

[https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=376084137](https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=376084137)

[https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2015/01/09/3760841...](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2015/01/09/376084137/trapped-in-his-body-for-12-years-a-man-breaks-free)

------
frereubu
On a side note, I really like the theory behing NPR's plain text option, but
it's only occasionally that it directs me to a plain text version of the
actual story. Often, as with this, it redirects me to the homepage. Does
anyone know the reason for this? Does the author have to explicitly publish a
text-only version?

~~~
IncRnd
I have javascript disabled, and the regular page loads immediately for me with
all of the story shown.

~~~
kzrdude
The only question, how do you have the energy to browse the web without
javascript, when every site uses it for something.

~~~
hawski
I imagine he either enables once in a while using NoScript, or just bails out.
I do not block Javascript for the time being, but nowadays I bail out much
more often, because most of what I see on the web, including on HN, is trash
or sightly higher then that, but still inconsequential.

Try sometimes to use links -g and you'll see how web can feel like browsing
local resources, if you have a decent connection. Some sites will not work,
but it kinda works as quality filter. If only links would support tabbed
browsing.

------
ravenstine
> Joan vividly remembers looking at Martin one day and saying: " 'I hope you
> die.' I know that's a horrible thing to say," she says now. "I just wanted
> some sort of relief."

> And she didn't think her son was there to hear it.

> But he was.

Daaaaamn.

------
the_arun
This story is so encouraging & human compared to rest of the news we read/hear
everyday. Thanks for sharing!

~~~
rebuilder
I guess I'm a glass-half-full type of person after all, then! This story is
horrifying to me. Apparently it's possible to be indefinitely kept in what I
can only imagine must be sheer hell, with no way out, and fully aware you're
probably looking at decades of suffering. This man lucked out. How many others
are supposedly vegetative but actually aware right now?

I suppose the odds are it's not a large number, but still. Time to find out
what kind of paperwork I need to file to stop this happening to me.

~~~
sulam
Hmm, glass half empty you mean? I mean yes, it sounds absolutely horrible. On
the other hand, he recovered, married, has a child and is living "the dream"
(independent consultant doing web/etc). He's also probably _really_ good at
meditation. :)

~~~
the_arun
I said this story is encouraging. For all of us who go through daily chores
could feel better knowing there is worst that could happen to us and we are
lucky to live through with our basic necessities fulfilled. This kind of
stories should make us empathetic/(more human) to others knowing what we have.

~~~
abellerose
I don’t know if I agree with that outlook but I can understand the people that
like the it could be worse mentality to keep them going. I don’t think I’m any
less empathetic for not having your outlook.

------
grishka
It feels weird that no one realized they could hook him up to one of those EEG
devices that would allow him to control a computer with his brain activity.
That way he could have a very narrow, but nevertheless a channel through which
to communicate with the outside world.

~~~
duskwuff
In 1991 - 1994? The technology _might_ have existed in some cutting-edge
research labs, but certainly not in a day care center in South Africa.

~~~
grishka
Sure, not then, but by 2005 that technology must've already been available.

------
mcbishop
> "I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney," Martin says.

> Since all the world thought Martin was a vegetable, at the special care
> center where he spent his days he was often in front of the TV watching
> reruns of the children's cartoon hour after hour, day after day.

For a young adult with an intact mind... this sounds like hell on Earth.

------
tobyhinloopen
I love NPR’s “visit plain text” option and I wish more news sites would do
that

~~~
capableweb
It's a very nice feature indeed! Only problem is that it redirects you back to
the homepage, and it's been like this since the day I first found out about
it. So I guess it's on purpose, to make some fewer people use that feature.

~~~
tobyhinloopen
Weird, it works fine for me (it redirects me to the article)

------
Waterfall
There is evidence that psychedelics put people in higher forms of
consciousness.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6475593/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6475593/)
Here is a few stories about Ambien, a sleeping pill with psychedelic qualities
by those who took it. [https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9215-sleeping-
pill-ma...](https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9215-sleeping-pill-may-
rouse-coma-patients/) [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/magazine/can-ambien-
wake-...](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/magazine/can-ambien-wake-
minimally-conscious.html) They also found music helps those with dementia.

------
h0l0cube
Over the last decade there's been progress in communicating with people who
are in a vegetative state by getting them to think of distinct things like
swimming or playing tennis to provide a Yes/No response.

[https://montilab.psych.ucla.edu/wp-
content/uploads/sites/49/...](https://montilab.psych.ucla.edu/wp-
content/uploads/sites/49/2015/11/Naci_etal_2012_BCI_DOC.pdf)

> “Scott, are you in any pain? Do any of your body parts hurt right now?
> Please imagine playing tennis if the answer is no.”

[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/sep/05/how-science-
fou...](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/sep/05/how-science-found-a-way-
to-help-coma-patients-communicate)

------
tiaa
This story hit me hard. I read his book today, its a deeply emotional and
worthwhile story.

Some stray phrases in the book led me to search some details of South African
history that I didn't have a strong grasp on.

Somehow the various internet wide analytics decided this meant I should see
this video:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guLmA6dWKes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guLmA6dWKes)

It probably requires some context (/research) to understand the context on
this. (I certainly did). But I found the implications of this video utterly
fascinating. There are a really quite large number of layers to analyze in
this.

------
codetrotter
That podcast episode explains something from the 11:20 minutes mark to 11:45
that I did not get from TFA. Namely, who is this Barney that he hated? In the
featured article they only wrote:

> But occasionally there were things that elicited thoughts he could not
> ignore.

> Like Barney.

> "I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney," Martin says.

> Since all the world thought Martin was a vegetable, at the special care
> center where he spent his days he was often in front of the TV watching
> reruns of the children's cartoon hour after hour, day after day.

But in the podcast they use the melody from the Barney & Friends kids TV show
and now it makes sense. Before listening to to the podcast, after reading the
article I was like "but who is Barney?"

~~~
ChrisMarshallNY
Oh. My. God. I am _OLD_.

Hating Barney was like a rite of passage for our generation. He coagulated out
of the primordial sludge about the time our kids were getting old enough to
want to see a purple dinosaur sing "I Love You".

Over

and over

and over again.

I liked the Barney mod for Doom though:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsvdMzfFNdQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsvdMzfFNdQ)

~~~
memling
> I liked the Barney mod for Doom though:
> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsvdMzfFNdQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsvdMzfFNdQ)

Barney Splat[1] was a door game for BBSs back in the day.

[1]
[https://www.mobygames.com/game/barneysplat](https://www.mobygames.com/game/barneysplat)

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ecnahc515
A similar story I saw a few months back on reddit is of Jacob Hendel, who also
suffered from locked-in syndrome due to Acute Toxic Progressive Stage 4
Leukoencephalopathy.

He's got a website www.jhaendelrecovery.com and youtube
[https://www.youtube.com/c/JacobHaendelRecoveryChannel/](https://www.youtube.com/c/JacobHaendelRecoveryChannel/).

It's super inspiring and he regularly provides updates on youtube on his
recovery progress.

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hugodahl
The most poignant and human part of his retelling, was the stranger's smile
while he was waiting in the car. That is what made him start moving away from
the darkness.

It's such a seemingly banal action, but so fundamentally human, in which we
acknowledge one-another's humanity, and show appreciation for it and ours.

Smile folks. It doesn't cost anything, and it just might be the spark needed
to light someone's life.

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mikorym
Interesting that I don't know of this story. For those that want some quick
gratification:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SbK6oDBeco](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SbK6oDBeco).

As far as I know, this story is not as well known in South Africa as one would
perhaps expect.

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Der_Einzige
Yeah, I'm still going to sign a DNR order so that if I'm in this situation,
that I can have an escape. It's not worth 12 years of being locked in to your
body to have a tiny chance of escape. I am so afraid of a situation like this
happening to me.

~~~
billiam
Quite telling that some people see this as a triumph of humanity and your
reaction and some others is to make sure you can you end your life if in a
similar situation. Martin of course never had that choice to make.

But I think the real point of his story is his message about how important it
is to communicate with others, how the depth and content of that communication
with others is who we really are. I think a man who was alone with his
thoughts for 15 years is very qualified to give us that advice.

~~~
lotsofpulp
This story would have motivated me to make sure the proper people have the
proper documents to ensure my plug gets pulled after a couple days. But I
already took care of that.

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SCLeo
Reading this makes me feel really uncomfortable. I can't imagine being him.
This is literally nightmare fuel, except it is real. I hope human technology
can soon evolve to a point where things like this won't happen.

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tijuco2
Imagine the day we get to have head transplant and people will be able to
leave their disabled body? (I know, this case is the opposite). An Italian
doctor wants to try it, but many others are criticizing the procedure.

~~~
Waterfall
Can you tell me more please? I think they're thinking of doing that with stem
cell body creation

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pcurve
Tedx talks of him giving talk
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD1IX1AFRZg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD1IX1AFRZg)

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aasasd
What's with the ‘a sentence a paragraph’ style, though? It was a BBC thing
before, but I think even they didn't put three words in a separate paragraph.

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AniseAbyss
They don't write stories about the people who don't wake up. Americans prefer
sentimentality and inspiration I guess.

~~~
hawski
Are there more cultures that don't prefer them?

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lmiller1990
I read the his book "Ghost Boy" many years ago. It's a great read; a heavy and
hard one, but I recommend it.

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martin1975
Bonafide divine miracle, if you ask me.

~~~
throw_m239339
Just because we can't explain fully the phenomenon doesn't mean it's "magics".
This guy's case needs to be studied in order to try to find out what made him
get better and see if the same conditions would be applicable to other
patients suffering from the same ills. Our bodies and our minds are resilient
in many ways, we need to find how to enable or accelerate that process.

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starpilot
(2015)

This got a lot of attention on release. If it sounds familiar, you probably
already read it.

~~~
FactCore
Thanks for that. I was reading it and feeling a really weird "No this did
actually happen" deja vu until you pointed out the date.

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jakobmartz3
Wow. Never gave up!

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tintor
This condition could be a great use case for Neural Link. To allow the patient
to send text messages and control devices.

~~~
netsharc
Ah, yet another Elon Musk invention. Will it work as well as the SpeceX
rockets or cave submarine and the promised level 5 self-driving..

~~~
bpodgursky
I don't know if you noticed, but the SpaceX rockets work extremely well.

~~~
jacquesm
But the cave submarine and the self driving do not. GP forgot to add a
question mark.

