![[Skip nav]](/images/clearpixel.gif){kind=tracking}
home | ON-AIR |
in-print |
about |
education |
support |
store |
email this page
|
|
|
|
home | ON-AIR |
in-print |
about |
education |
support |
store |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
home > on-air > feature documentaries > my lobotomy > Oral Histories
Helen Culmer is 76 years old and lives by herself in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. In 1954 she was a nurse at an all-black hospital for the insane. My name is Helen Culmer. I was a nurse at Laikin State hospital in West Virginia for 34 years. In 1954 I assisted Dr. Freeman in doing a transorbital lobotomy. I was a new nurse at the time and I was drafted to work in there with him. Had no idea about what I was getting into. But I was curious and I wanted to see it. And I saw it.... Oh my, the room was full of people! Everybody wanted to see what’s going on, people from town and everywhere else come up to witness this occasion. He came, and I held the patient’s head and he did the lobotomy. He had an instrument-- to me it looked like a nail, a great big nail. It had a sharp point, and he inserted this in the corner of the individual’s eye and banged it with a mallet, I guess it was. And then he pulled from one side and pulled to the other side. It wasn’t easy… It wasn’t easy to watch… I know that day we lost one patient because they couldn’t stop the bleeding and I can’t remember if any others died… It wasn’t… It wasn’t what I thought it might be. To me it was cruel. But that was my opinion. I was just doing the job I was employed to do. Remember I’ve seen all kinds of things in my line of work--so if I stopped and dwelled on each little thing, I’d be hurting.
Wolfhard Baumgartel lives in Albany, Ohio. I am Wolfhard Baumgartel. I’m 82 years old. I was a staff physician at the Athens State Hospital in Ohio in 1954. Not long after I started at the hospital, I had the opportunity to watch Dr. Walter Freeman perform a series of transorbital lobotomies. I was neither a psychiatrist nor a neurologist. I was just a very very green beginner here who hardly spoke any English, and he was a big shot at that time. As far as I remember he probably did between 15 or 20 on that particular day. Doctor Freeman did not leave the operating room after each procedure - the patient went out, the next patient was ready to come in, had his procedure done, went out again, and then the next patient came in… I remember that he was relaxed. He was very calm while he was operating. He made it look easy to do it. I think he had an extremely self-confident personality. He didn’t have any qualms. He wanted to prove that he was right, he was convinced that he was right. I thought, "How can a man be relaxed just going blindly into a brain?!" But of course, I didn’t have the authority to say, "Stop that!" These patients were not young ones. I think they were all about 30 or 40 years old. I knew two of them. After the operation I found that they had changed in their personality. My impression, which I remember still, was that they didn’t ask any questions. Expression of deep turmoil in their heart or in their soul was subdued. There was something missing: emotions, I would say. You know, if you were to converse with somebody there’s always emotion with it. Just take all of your emotion out of a conversation with somebody and what’s left?
Patricia Moen was lobotomized by Walter Freeman in 1962 at the age of 36. This is the first time she and her husband have spoken about her lobotomy.
GLEN MOEN: My name is Glen Moen. I am 79 years old. I signed the release for Pat’s lobotomy. PATRICIA MOEN: We have not talked about it, since I had the lobotomy - I don’t think ever. My husband is not a great communicator. GM: I don’t talk to her anymore than I have to. PM: Glen - be nice! (both laugh). We’d been married about 13 years, and it just started. I cried all the time. I just was mentally no good. GM: One night I came home and she said, "Well, I’ve done it now!" She’d taken a whole bottle of some kind of pills.... PM: That’s when the doctor decided it was time. GM: He told me this was the last resort. I didn’t know what else to do. PM: Dr. Freeman said you can come out of this a vegetable, or you can come out dead. And I guess I was miserable enough that I didn’t care. GM: I was kind of worried because of the operation of severing a nerve in the brain...It sounded kind of wild to me! PM: ...He was afraid he was going to lose his cook. GM: And I don’t like to cook. PM: I remember nothing after I saw Dr. Freeman. I don’t remember going into the hospital, or having it done, or how long I was there. That's all gone. GM: We were coming back from San Jose after the operation, and Pat informed me that she couldn’t wait to get home because she wanted to file for divorce. PM: Hmmmm…. Don’t remember that at all. I don’t think I said it. GM: I think I just went on driving and ignored the situation and began to wonder to myself how much good did this operation accomplish. Really, I can see no changes in most areas except she is much easier to get along with. PM: You didn’t see any change in the way I kept house? Or the way I— GM: Nn… no… PM: I was a more free person after I’d had it. Just not to be so concerned about things…. I just, I went home and started living. I guess is the best way I can say— I was able to get back into taking care of things and cooking and shopping and that kind of thing... GM: Delighted at the way it turned out. It’s been a good life. PM: Well, thank you.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
YOU ARE HERE:
home >
on-air
> feature documentaries >
my lobotomy
>
email this page
|
top of page
|
|
|
home
Sound Portraits Productions, 80 Hanson Place, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11217 Copyright © 2010 Sound Portraits Productions. All rights reserved. |
