It started with a sore throat. 12-year-old Martin came home from school feeling tired. Within weeks, he stopped eating. Then, he stopped walking. By the end of the month, his mind seemed to vanish completely into a dark fog.

Doctors were baffled. They diagnosed him with a degenerative disease and gave his parents, Rodney and Joan, the worst news imaginable: “He is a vegetable. His brain is dead. Take him home and keep him comfortable until he dies.”
But Martin didn’t die. His body kept growing, while his mind appeared lost. For years, his father would wake up at 5:00 AM to dress him, drive him to a care center, and bathe him at night. They were caring for a living ghost.
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