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“Horrifying”: 1980s Hit-And-Run Victim Wakes Up After 39 Years In Coma To A “Stranger” Wife
“Horrifying”: 1980s Hit-And-Run Victim Wakes Up After 39 Years In Coma To A “Stranger” Wife
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“Horrifying”: 1980s Hit-And-Run Victim Wakes Up After 39 Years In Coma To A “Stranger” Wife

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The life of a hit-and-run victim took a surreal turn when he emerged from a decades-long coma, only to discover a world that feels completely foreign and unrecognizable to him.

When Luciano D’Adamo woke up for the first time from his coma, he firmly believed it was the year 1980 and that he was still a 24-year-old airport worker.

He also believed he was still engaged to his 19-year-old fiancée.

RELATED:

    After decades in a coma, Luciano D’Adamo woke up to a world that was both astonishing and alien to him

    Image credits: LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS/stock.adobe.com (Not the actual photo)

    Image credits: Il Messaggero

    The Italian man was baffled to discover that he was 63 years old and had stumbled into the technologically advanced world of 2019, the year he woke up from his coma.

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    Luciano’s last vivid memory was stepping out of his house in Rome in March 1980, feeling a sudden, violent jolt that plunged him into darkness. He was the victim of a hit-and-run case that remains unsolved.

    When he regained consciousness in 2019, he found that even the man staring back at him in the mirror was a stranger. Moreover, he could not recognize his wife or son, who is now in his 30s.

    The man in his 60s firmly believed that he woke up in the year 1980 and was still a 24-year-old man, engaged to a 19-year-old fiancée

    Image credits: RAI News

    Image credits: Il Messaggero

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    Five years later, the now-68-year-old man spoke about being dumbstruck by modern technology and how he had to learn to use a smartphone.

    “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 said: “In 100 meters turn right,”‘ he told Il Messaggero, as quoted by the Daily Mail.

    Apart from the fancy devices around him, Luciano could also not recognize the faces around him when he woke up from his coma.

    The 19-year-old fiancée from his memory had aged, just like him, and became a “stranger.”

    Five years after waking up from his coma in 2019, the now 68-year-old spoke about adjusting to his new life, having missed out on decades of experiences with his loved ones

    Image credits: RAI News

    Image credits: kittyfly/stock.adobe.com (Not the actual photo)

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    “She called me Luciano and I wondered how she knew my name,” he recalled.

    He also had to accept that he was a father to a man in his 30s and a grandfather.

    Over the past five years, Luciano has been acclimatizing to his new world and filling in the gaps in his memories, wiped clean over the last four decades.

    He is currently employed at a school and continues to work with doctors on his memory issues.

    Netizens agreed that it must have been a shocking experience to wake up four decades later to an unrecognizable world

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    Binitha Jacob

    Binitha Jacob

    Writer, Entertainment News Writer

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    At Bored Panda, I dive into breaking celebrity news, Hollywood updates, and viral pop culture stories that spark global conversations. My background as a reporter at International Business Times and Latin Times gave me experience covering fast-moving entertainment stories for international audiences. Today, my work regularly appears on Google News, AOL, and MSN, reaching millions of readers. What excites me most is capturing the pop culture moments that people can’t stop talking about.

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    Binitha Jacob

    Binitha Jacob

    Writer, Entertainment News Writer

    At Bored Panda, I dive into breaking celebrity news, Hollywood updates, and viral pop culture stories that spark global conversations. My background as a reporter at International Business Times and Latin Times gave me experience covering fast-moving entertainment stories for international audiences. Today, my work regularly appears on Google News, AOL, and MSN, reaching millions of readers. What excites me most is capturing the pop culture moments that people can’t stop talking about.

    What do you think ?
    CF
    Community Member
    1 year ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    They left out some important info. From what I read elsewhere (on equally dubious sites, such as The Sun and The Daily Mail..) the accident occurred in 2019 and he had retrograde amnesia erasing 30+ year. Don't know how long he was in the coma, but that wasn't the important bit. He lived through those decades, just doesn't remember them now.

    Parmeisan
    Community Member
    1 year ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Squinting at the math here a little. He was 24 when he entered the coma and woke up at 63, so it was 39 years, yes? Or 38 and a bit if it was near his birthday. His son is "in his 30s". Must be at LEAST 37 if he fathered him before the coma. Just seems weird they wouldn't have said "nearly 40" or maybe "late 30s" since they are otherwise really trying to stress how much he missed. Something seems off.

    Moonie Pinkslip
    Community Member
    1 year ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    You got this all wrong, BP. He was in a car accident in 2019--he wasn't in a coma for THIRTY NINE YEARS, for God's sake!! In the car accident, he suffered retrograde amnesia that wiped out all his memories of 39 years, last thing he recalls is being engaged. He was married, had a son, lived his whole life up until 2019, when the accident happened.

    CF
    Community Member
    1 year ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    They left out some important info. From what I read elsewhere (on equally dubious sites, such as The Sun and The Daily Mail..) the accident occurred in 2019 and he had retrograde amnesia erasing 30+ year. Don't know how long he was in the coma, but that wasn't the important bit. He lived through those decades, just doesn't remember them now.

    Parmeisan
    Community Member
    1 year ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Squinting at the math here a little. He was 24 when he entered the coma and woke up at 63, so it was 39 years, yes? Or 38 and a bit if it was near his birthday. His son is "in his 30s". Must be at LEAST 37 if he fathered him before the coma. Just seems weird they wouldn't have said "nearly 40" or maybe "late 30s" since they are otherwise really trying to stress how much he missed. Something seems off.

    Moonie Pinkslip
    Community Member
    1 year ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    You got this all wrong, BP. He was in a car accident in 2019--he wasn't in a coma for THIRTY NINE YEARS, for God's sake!! In the car accident, he suffered retrograde amnesia that wiped out all his memories of 39 years, last thing he recalls is being engaged. He was married, had a son, lived his whole life up until 2019, when the accident happened.

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