Italian man wakes from coma, forgets 40 years of his life
A 63-year-old resident of Italy fell into a brief coma following a traffic accident. When he woke up, he was unable to remember the last 40 years. The man did not recognize his wife and children and believed he was still 24 years old.
7:41 PM EDT, October 23, 2024
Luciano D'Adamo's story sounds like the plot of a Robert Zemeckis film. After the 63-year-old was involved in a car accident in 2019 and fell into a coma, 40 years of his life were "erased" from his memory.
Upon waking, he did not recognize his family members and believed it was still 1980. Consequently, the man forgot all the technological advancements from the past decades.
The Italian newspaper "Il Messaggero" has recently revisited his story. According to their account, upon waking, the man wanted to contact his mother instead of his wife, not remembering that she had already passed away and that he himself was over sixty.
He did not know how to use a cell phone, believed his fiancée was 19 years old, and was astonished by the sight of his wife and adult son. It turned out that the last day he remembers is March 20, 1980.
I was 24 years old, working in Fiumicino as airport ground staff. When I finished, I returned to Rome, living in Monte Mario. I came home, then went out again—Luciano recounted to the Italian press.
Luciano has been unable to regain his memory. He is still working on it under the supervision of neurologists, with the support of his family. He is currently 68 years old and works as an equipment maintenance technician at a school.
