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I spent over an hour this morning talking with a former male patient from this "mental institution" and where I have always heard tales, seen movies and imagined things nothing and I mean nothing compares to talking with someone who has survived something like this.
This man was 15 when his parents placed him in this hospital because they just couldn't control him anymore. He had suffered from a head injury (an accident with an ax) at the hands of his brother and was suffering from short term memory lapses. If you told him something today he would not remember it until tomorrow or the next day. Anyway, his parents who were busy raising other children couldn't be bothered with someone that couldn't listen and mind. He was driven up and dropped off. He remained in that hospital for approxmantely a year. He was subjected to electric shock therapy to trigger his short term memory, made to strip down to nothing and left in a cold room with no blankets to sleep, doused with cold water and often beaten by older kids and staff with baseball bats or lead pipes if he stepped out of line. One time he escaped and lived in the nearby woods for 2-3 months living on fish and burrowing under leaves to sleep at night. He was eventually caught by 2 hunters who chained him into the back of their truck and dropped back off at the hospital. When he returned to the hospital he was again given electric shock therapy where in the bed next to him lay his best friend. His best friend was given ECT also because he helped him escape. His friend died while recieving his "therapy". He was stripped naked and had to sit on a cold metal bench all day and night. When he started falling asleep they would hit him with the bat. Finally they put him in a cold, bare room with bars in the door. He had to stand there naked with his hands through the bars to prove he was still awake. If you removed your hands, feel asleep, urinated or defecated on the floor while you were being punished you were forced to clean all of it up with your toothbrush or beaten with a baseball bat or lead pipe. You were never hit in the head or face because these bruises would be seen by the doctors so you where hit in the body, arms or legs. When you went to see the Doctor you were never allowed to take off your shirt or pants so the doctor pronounced you "okay" and you were sent back to your ward.
He also described to me a time where in the middle of the night some of the older kids/adults in his ward grabbed a younger kid, took him into a bathroom, locked the door and shoved a hose in his rectum. They then turned on the water full blast. The boy died. He lived in fear of his life the whole time he was in this "hospital". He always knew that he would be the next one that got treated that way. He learned to fight back and eventually became one of the older kids. A year after his parents dropped him off there his older sister came and took him out of there, helped him get a job and he moved on. This is one of the kindest men I have ever met. He is always ready, willing and volunteering to help. I stood there talking to him for over an hour and was in tears most of the time. When he talked about the ECT all he kept saying was "I never want to do that again". He said the pain that ECT caused was unlike any other pain he has ever experienced. That is saying alot considering he has had major open-heart surgery and major arteries replaced.
I loved looking at all of the pictures of the old state mental hospitals but now I don't know if I can without picturing all the hell these patients went through in the name of medicine and patient care.
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