BioMed
Pistorius retained awareness for years while others believed he was unresponsive.
Someone who cannot move, speak or make any sign can still be fully aware, and nothing on the outside shows it. People judge the inner life by the outward response, so a person whose body gives no response gets written off as absent. This can continue for years.
Consciousness can come back slowly rather than flicking on like a switch. Even once awake, it can take time to understand one's own situation, such as being trapped inside a body that does not obey. That means there is no single dramatic moment for anyone to catch.
When others believe you cannot understand, they look through and around you, as if you were a ghost. They argue about you, confide private matters and behave as if alone in front of you. This gives the hidden person an unfiltered view of how people act when they think no one is watching.
Being unable to act or object while every single thing in your life is decided by someone else feels like not existing. The author singles out this utter powerlessness, more than any physical hardship, as the worst feeling he has known.
Once experts declare a person to have the mind of a baby and no future, everyone around them stops looking for signs of anything more. The diagnosis shapes how people talk to the person, where they place them and what they expect. That keeps any contrary evidence from being noticed.
Caregivers who believe their charge cannot perceive, remember or report are freed from the usual checks on cruelty. A person with no way to communicate becomes an ideal target, and abuse can come from several caregivers at once.
Long caregiving under a hopeless verdict can wear family members down until, in despair, one of them says aloud to the silent person that they must die. Because the carer believes the person cannot hear, such words land on someone who hears every one.
When the body and the outside world offer no escape, a trapped mind can survive by retreating inward and losing itself in imagination. This inner escape is how years of immobility were endured.
A single person who speaks to someone as if they understand can be what decides between rescue and being forgotten. The author believes that without such a person he would now be dead or forgotten in an institution. Others must also help a dependent person find a dream, and make it possible for them to have one.
Long dependence on others leaves a person worrying about who will care for them when their parents are gone. It can also leave them seeing themselves as repulsive and unlovable. Even after progress, a body that can do something one day may fail the next, so the dependence never fully ends.