On 9 January 2015, NPR launched a new show called Invisibilia with a fascinating story about Martin Pistorius, a man who spent 12 years of his life in a mysterious coma:
He got progressively worse. Eventually he lost his ability to move by himself, his ability to make eye contact, and then, finally, his ability to speak.
His parents, Rodney and Joan Pistorius, were told that he was as good as not there, a vegetable. The hospital told them to take him home and keep him comfortable until he died. But he didn't die. "Martin just kept going, just kept going," his mother says.