A man trapped in a coma for 12 years was aware of everything. His hatred of Barney reruns constantly playing helped him to regain control of his mind.

“I cannot even express to you how much I hated Barney,” Martin says.

Since all the world thought Martin was a vegetable, at the special care center where he spent his days he was often in front of the TV watching reruns of the children’s cartoon hour after hour, day after day.

Then one day, he decided he’d had enough. He wanted to gain some small measure of control over his day. So he figured out how to tell time by how the sun moved across a room. That was the start.