Ghost Boy breaks free after years trapped in his own body

At age 12, Martin was sent home from school with flu-like symptoms. Slowly but surely his body began to shut down. First lost his voice, then stopped eating, his muscles weakened and within eighteen months he was mute and wheelchair-bound.

 

About four years later when he was about 16, Martin started to wake up, only to realise the reality of his situation…

 

Trapped within his own body, he lived like a ghost. Powerless, he could hear and see everything but was invisible to the world around him. Left with only his thoughts and his imagination as an escape, hours turned into days, days into months and months into years.

 

But in 2001, there was new hope. Virna Van Der Walt, a therapist at Pistorius' care center, began to pick up on minute signals Pistorius was more aware than people thought.

 

Listen to the full interview to hear the incredible story of the boy who came back to life, went on to graduate and found love here:

 

Martin with his parents at his graduation, 2006.

Martin and former President Thabo Mbeki, 2004.

 

About The Book

In January 1988 Martin Pistorius, aged twelve, fell inexplicably sick. First he lost his voice and stopped eating. Then he slept constantly and shunned human contact. Doctors were mystified. Within eighteen months he was mute and wheelchair-bound. Martin's parents were told an unknown degenerative disease left him with the mind of a baby and less than two years to live.

 

Martin was moved to care centers for severely disabled children. The stress and heartache shook his parents’ marriage and their family to the core. Their boy was gone. Or so they thought.

 

Ghost Boy is the heart-wrenching story of one boy’s return to life through the power of love and faith. In these pages, readers see a parent’s resilience, the consequences of misdiagnosis, abuse at the hands of cruel caretakers, and the unthinkable duration of Martin’s mental alertness betrayed by his lifeless body.

 

We also see a life reclaimed—a business created, a new love kindled—all from a wheelchair. Martin's emergence from his own darkness invites us to celebrate our own lives and fight for a better life for others.