Luciano D’Adamo’s last memories are of leaving his Rome house on March 20, 1980, feeling a sudden violent blow, and then seeing darkness. Waking up in a hospital a few days later, he was traumatized to learn that he had been the victim of a hit-and-run accident — not in 1980, but in 2019. After being in a coma for a few days, he awakened with no memory of the past 4 decades. At first, he didn’t recognize himself in the mirror, nor did he recognize his wife. He thought he was a 24-year-old who was engaged to his 19-year-old fiancée. Now, he saw her as an older, strange lady. The 63-year-old was even more shocked to learn that he has a son in his 30s, older than he believed himself to be. Today, 5 years later, Luciano works as a janitor in a school. Contact with children has helped him to reintegrate into society, but the road to recovery wasn’t easy. It required a lot of patience from Luciano and those around him. Doctors and psychologists helped him to accept the gap in his memory. Things that others take for granted were foreign to him. For example, he had to learn what a smartphone was and how to use it, as well as how a car navigation system works. His wife and son were there to help him, and some of his memory has returned. Now 68, Luciano has found some acceptance that he is no longer a young man and can't run up the stairs like he used to. The hit-and-run driver has never been found.
