A 63-year-old dad woke from a coma in 2019, losing 39 years of memories and describing his life as “darkness.”
Luciano D’Adamo is a 63-year-old father who has faced an unimaginable situation.
After waking from a coma in 2019, he discovered that he had lost 39 years of his life.
Luciano believes he is still living in 1980, the year when his world changed forever.
63-year-old dad wakes up from a coma claiming he doesn’t remember anything since 1980
Five years ago, Luciano was in a severe car accident that left him in a coma.
When he finally woke up in a hospital in Rome, he was shocked to learn that he had been unconscious for nearly four decades.
Doctors informed him that it was now 2019, but for Luciano, time had stopped. He was still a 23-year-old man in his mind.
“I was twenty-three and wanted to go out soon, I had no serious bruises but just a little confusion in my head,” he said.
At first, Luciano struggled to understand what had happened.
He was asked by doctors who they should contact about his recovery.
Confused, he told them to call his mother. In his mind, he was still a young man, preparing to marry his girlfriend.
The doctors tried to reassure him, but nothing made sense. When he looked in the mirror, he saw an elderly man staring back at him, not the young man he remembered.
The man was also baffled after learning he was a dad
Luciano’s family was waiting for him, but he didn’t recognize them. His son entered the room and called him “Dad.”
Luciano could not comprehend how this man, who looked much older than he remembered, could be his son.
He was shown family photos, but they meant nothing to him. The memories that should have flooded back were absent.
“Here’s the crazy guy, I thought. He must have been thirty, how could he be my son, since I’m twenty-three?” Luciano said.
“He takes something out of his pocket with some photos on it that he shows me. I don’t recognize any of them, I don’t understand who he is or what he’s talking about.”
Luciano’s love for soccer has also changed.
He was a lifelong fan of AS Roma, but when he woke up, he had no knowledge of the team’s legendary players, including Francesco Totti.
He has missed out on significant events, such as the 9/11 attacks and changes in Italian politics, as well as personal milestones like his mother’s funeral.
“My memory is like a jukebox, one of those from the summers of the Seventies.
You put in the hundred lire, the records spin, spin, until they stop and only one comes down on the turntable to be listened to.”
As time passed, Luciano began to face the reality of his situation.
His wife explained the changes that had occurred in their lives while he was in a coma.
She showed him their wedding photos, and for a brief moment, he recognized her as the girl he had planned to marry before the accident.
However, the memories of their life together remained elusive.
Despite the challenges, Luciano has tried to rebuild his life.
He has gone through various therapies at the Santa Lucia Institute, hoping to recover lost memories.
His family has created folders filled with notes and photos to help jog his memory. Occasionally, he experiences flashes of recollection, particularly of the births of his two sons.
These moments are precious, as they connect him to a life he cannot fully remember.
Additionally, he has had to learn about the world changes that occurred during his absence.
Technologies like smartphones and GPS navigation are foreign concepts to him.
He recalls a moment of confusion when he first saw a television screen and did not understand what it was.
“At a certain point, I saw that there was a black box that I didn’t understand what it was. Then my wife pushed a button and I realized it was a television screen,” he said.
In the five years since waking up, Luciano has made progress, but he still feels lost.
He sometimes expresses a desire to fly on an airplane, unaware that he has already traveled.
His wife gently reminds him of their trips together, but he insists that those experiences belong to someone else, not him.