‘Treat everyone with kindness, dignity, compassion and respect whether you think they understand or not: never underestimate the power of the mind, the importance of love and faith, and to never stop dreaming.’
This is the message that a young man who lived for ten years ‘trapped’ in an unresponsive body has for the world. Martin Pistorius fell seriously ill at the age of twelve and lost control of his body. His parents were told that he had no awareness of the world around him. For ten years, he “lived in torture”, unable to communicate, as he grew up with everyone around him assuming he was brain-dead. Then, a physical therapist saw ‘a glimmer in his eye’, and knew that there was someone in there. Tests showed that Martin could, in fact, communicate, and it turned out to be a turning point in his life. He learnt to talk with a computer-aided device, learnt to drive, went to college, and met and married the ‘love of his life’. He’s even written a book called, ‘Ghost Boy’.
Having dementia is not the same illness that Martin had, but they share a common truth – the person is in there, no matter how devastatingly they seem to have changed.
The person with dementia will not recover as fully as Martin did, this side of Heaven, but there are accounts of how the person within has been reached and responded, in all of my books. See them on www.pilgrimsfriend.org.uk. And in a book due to be published in November, Dr Jennifer Bute, who was diagnosed with dementia ten years ago, describes ways of reaching the person inside, and communicating with them.
You can see the TV interview at: https://faithit.com/ghost-boy-trapped-inside-body-10-years-escapes-now-message-world/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=title&utm_campaign=faithit20180319&maropost_id=728733119
Thank you again,for your article,Loise.
God bless you,