Issue 585 Pulling the Plug May 6, 2015

I recently watched an interview between Glenn Beck and the author of the book "Ghost Boy” Martin Pistorius.  In the book he chronicled his time while trapped in his own body.  Read on to find out what I mean.

The Ghost Boy:  Pistorius was in a vegetative state for 12 years.  Yes, the kind of vegetative state that many people pull the plug so to speak to take them off life support.  His vegetative state was caused by a disease, so as you can imagine, it was hard on his family.  So much so, that he heard his mother whisper in his ear that she hoped he would die (she said this while he was in the vegetative state).  However, in his vegetative state, he could see, hear, feel, everything that went on around him, he was simply trapped in his own body.  Unfortunately, his mother's whisper was not the only sad thing to happen to him while in his condition.  He was sexually abused by a nurse during his stay at the hospital.  Pistorius would chronicle that and more in his book "Ghost Boy".

Impact:  From this interview, we can surmise there is hope for men and women trapped in such a state can come out of it.  In Fact, according to the interview, there are others who have come out of this vegetative state, though it is not common, it is not an uncommon occurrence either.  But there are no tell tail signs to determine if they are actually still in there or if and when they will awaken or not.  Basically, we do not know, and thus people will continue the pain and suffering of waiting, hoping that their family member will wake up.

Conclusion:  What this interview did was give me hope.  It gave me hope that people's suffering could end and that these people can go about their lives, or start new ones after an accident or disease causes them to be trapped in their own bodies.  It is torture to both the victim and the families, but keeping the person you care about alive may just pay off.  They may come back to us.  So, it is then up to us to determine what to do at this point.  Do we pull the plug and end their trapped existence, or keep them alive and hope to one day talk to the person trapped within.  I know what I would do.  I would cling to hope, and keep the person I love alive.