At age 12, Martin Pistorius suddenly turned from a healthy boy obsessed with electronics into a virtual 'vegetable' after falling into an inexplicable comatose state. He would spend the next dozen years trapped inside his weakened, helpless body, unable to speak or move, with only the children's character Barney to keep him company for hours on end. 'I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney,' Martin recalled on the first episode of NPR's new radio show about human behavior, Invisibilia. Mystery illness: At age 12, Martin Pistorius, pictured here with his father, Rodney, suddenly turned from a healthy boy into a virtual vegetable after falling into an inexplicable comatose state
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At age 12, Martin Pistorius, from South Africa, came home with a sore throat, which turned out to be a prelude to a 12-year health crisis
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His physical and mental condition quickly deteriorated until he could not walk or speak
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Doctors were never able to diagnose his illness, but cryptococcal meningitis was the likely cause
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About two years into his illness, Martin's mind began to 'wake up' but no one around him knew that because he could not communicate
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Speaking to host of NPR's new show Invisibilia, Martin said he was aware of 'everything' around him but felt entombed in his powerless body
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In his late 20s, Martin learned to use a computer to speak and got a government job
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He has since graduated from college with a degree in computer science, started his own web design company and married in 2008
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In 2011, Pistorius published his memoir Ghost Boy
His mother initially wanted nothing to do with @placeholder, so great was her anger and resentment brought on by seeing her once-healthy boy turn into a 'potted plant.'