An accident erased 40 years of memory, he woke up thinking it was 1980 and that he was 24

Memories are a treasure trove, holding the milestones, achievements, and small joys that shape a person’s life. But for Luciano D'Adamo, waking up from a coma in 2019 felt like stepping into a different world. He didn’t recognize the young man and woman calling his name and asked the nurse if he could speak to his mother, only to be told she had passed away long ago. Doctors explained that just days earlier, he had been in a severe car accident, which erased 40 years of his memory.

For Luciano, it was still 1980. As reported by Il Messaggero, his last memory was leaving his home in Rome at age 24. When doctors told him that the woman beside him was his wife, he looked at her, stunned. To him, she was a stranger—he only remembered his 19-year-old girlfriend, the woman he had wanted to marry. Luciano had no recollection of their marriage, their children, or the life they had built together. "She called me Luciano, and I wondered how she knew my name. She was a complete stranger to me," he shared with Il Messaggero, illustrating how vital memory is to feeling at home in one’s own life.

The tragic accident also stole his understanding of technology and when the nurse handed him a mobile phone, he stared at it, utterly baffled. He only remembered a time when such devices were nowhere to be seen. Things like GPS only confused him even more. "I still remember the amazement of traveling in a car that showed me a map of Rome on a screen, or rather the Tuttocittà as we once called it, while a voice asked us to turn right in 100 meters," he told Messaggero.

Describing the new reality that makes him feel a bit disorientated, the 68-year-old Luciano told Messaggero, "Every now and then I meet someone who greets me. It will surely be an old friend but I don't know who it is, however out of kindness I pretend to recognize him and reciprocate.” In an odd scenario, describing a conversation with his wife he said, "Sometimes I say that I would like to fly on a plane, I have never done it. My wife says to me 'What are you talking about? We were in Paris together. And I reply, 'You have been there, I haven't'."

In the end, the old man says, he has many challenges to overcome and socialization is one of the first things he needs to tackle. Corriere della Sera reported that Luciano is still struggling to be a granddad, as in his memory, he is just a 24-year-old. While doctors and psychologists are working on salvaging his memory, he has taken up a new job at a school. However, he still hasn't received justice or compensation as part of his hit-and-run accident case, as the driver in question was never found by the authorities.