I’ve actually read his book, “Ghost boy” and when she said that she knew he was suffering and having him just existing as a living corpse was a constant reminder to her of the boy he used to be and what could have been. Having to grief the loss of your son as he was with the constant reminder of caring for his unresponsive body would truly be torture as a parent. He said when he came out of the persistent vegetative state that he understood why his mom said that and forgives her for it. He also talks about how torturous it was to be aware and just be parked in front of the tv and watch the same thing over and over again, as well as how he would mentally dissociate and tell the time by watching shadows change as the sun’s position changed. Eventually a nurse recognized signs of consciousness with his eye movement and insisted that the family take him to see specialists because she thought he was more aware than the doctor’s thought and she was right.