“The rest of the world felt so far away when she said those words.”

That’s how Martin Pistorius, author of Ghost Boy, recounted the moment his mother told him, directly to his face, that she “hopes he dies”—completely unaware that he could comprehend every word.

Pistorius had been an ordinary child with a fascination for gadgets until, at the age of 12, his body began to shut down without warning.

Despite visits to doctors, no diagnosis could explain his condition. Initially sent home from school with what seemed like flu symptoms, he never returned. Over time, he stopped eating, his muscles grew weak, and eventually, he became immobile, even losing the ability to think.

In his memoir, Pistorius reveals how medical professionals described him as “a vegetable,” claimed he had no remaining intelligence, and advised his parents to wait for his inevitable death.

However, at the age of 16, he regained consciousness—only to spend the next eight years trapped in a body that couldn’t move.

The remarkable journey of a South African family is now the focus of a new NPR documentary podcast featured in the channel’s Invisibilia program.

During an interview with NPR, Pistorius shared that his determination to fight and be understood stemmed from an unusual source—being forced to endure repeated episodes of the children’s TV show Barney.

“I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney,” he explained.

Frustrated by the constant exposure to the singing dinosaur, Pistorius taught himself to tell time without a clock, just to count down until the episodes ended.