Becoming confined within your own body, unable to move or speak, and with no one, including yourself, recognizing you are still there, may seem like the worst nightmare. Such terrible things, unfortunately, are some people’s reality.

Martin Pistorius, a 12-year-old South African kid, was diagnosed with an unknown neurological condition. It wasn’t long until he was unable to move or talk. He had merely fallen into an odd coma, or so everyone assumed!

He seemed to be utterly ignorant of his surroundings, although this was far from the case. He was aware of his illness a few years after being bed-bound, but there was little he could do since he couldn’t move or talk.

Doctors didn’t know he was still alive and locked within his own body until years later. “My consciousness developed gradually, so it wasn’t like I was sleeping and suddenly I was up,” he told All in the Mind. “It took me a while to completely realize that I was confined within my body when my consciousness returned,” Martin revealed after recovering his life, although partially.

We can never comprehend what it must have been like for Martin to experience something so frightening. Martin can now walk, but he has lost his ability to communicate. Instead, he used computer-assisted tools to improve his speech. He is married and has his own company in Essex, England. Martin’s life story was detailed in a best-selling book, Ghost Boy: My Escape from a Life Locked Inside My Own Body, released by Simon & Schuster.

Over ten million individuals tuned in to see his NBC News interview. Watch the video below for more on his wonderful experience.