if any of you have listened to Invisibilia
Just curious - the story about Martin Pistorius waking up from a 12 year near-vegetative state has been making the news rounds for the past week.
Do you know if something happened recently to get this bumped up and circulated all over the place (release of a new book, new discovery, anything?), or is it because NPR did a segment about him in their new podcast Invisibilia?
Like, this story has appeared on Israeli print media, but nowhere have I found any mention or credit given to Invisibilia. Yet all current mentions of the story that I've found have appeared after the Invisibilia episode was released on January 9th.
If the new interest in the story really did arise from them, then man, go them, and I wish they'd get more credit for it. If not, then... coincidence, I guess.
In any case, I listened to the podcast a few days ago and wow, this was seriously one of the most depressing, horrifying stories I've ever heard - it's got a happy ending (dude can communicate now, finished school, has a business, wife, book!) but he essentially spent 8-10 years fully awake and aware in a body that could not communicate, when everyone around him - friends, family, nurses convinced that he was in a vegetative state. He could hear and understand everything, but do nothing about it. As far as he knew, this would go on forever, and in fact it went on for just - years and years and years. During which for long stretches of time they simply set him in front of Barney reruns. Ugh it's just - one of the most horrifying, despairing scenarios I can think of.
*shudders forever*
*small prayer of thanks for all my synapses working properly*
comments on Dreamwidth.
Do you know if something happened recently to get this bumped up and circulated all over the place (release of a new book, new discovery, anything?), or is it because NPR did a segment about him in their new podcast Invisibilia?
Like, this story has appeared on Israeli print media, but nowhere have I found any mention or credit given to Invisibilia. Yet all current mentions of the story that I've found have appeared after the Invisibilia episode was released on January 9th.
If the new interest in the story really did arise from them, then man, go them, and I wish they'd get more credit for it. If not, then... coincidence, I guess.
In any case, I listened to the podcast a few days ago and wow, this was seriously one of the most depressing, horrifying stories I've ever heard - it's got a happy ending (dude can communicate now, finished school, has a business, wife, book!) but he essentially spent 8-10 years fully awake and aware in a body that could not communicate, when everyone around him - friends, family, nurses convinced that he was in a vegetative state. He could hear and understand everything, but do nothing about it. As far as he knew, this would go on forever, and in fact it went on for just - years and years and years. During which for long stretches of time they simply set him in front of Barney reruns. Ugh it's just - one of the most horrifying, despairing scenarios I can think of.
*shudders forever*
*small prayer of thanks for all my synapses working properly*
comments on Dreamwidth.