Patient H.M. (30 page)
Authors: Luke Dittrich
One paper mentioned that he lived in a nursing home somewhere in Connecticut, so I made a list of homes in the Hartford area, and I started calling them.
Haven Health Center:
No, we don't have anyone by that name. Sorry. Bye.
Riverside Health and Rehabilitation Center:
How do you spell that last name?â¦No.
Ellis Manor:
Molson? How do you spell it?
Trinity Hill Care Center:
You know, I can't give out any information on our patients. There's a federal law, it's called the HIPAA law.
Second call to same place, different person answers:
What's the name again?â¦No, we don't.
Avery Nursing Home:
Happy holidays! It's Carol speakingâ¦.Hang onâ¦.Mmmm, okay, he's not on the list.
And on and on. Every nursing home in Hartford, East Hartford, West Hartford, Newington, Bloomfieldâ¦
Nothing.
I didn't find Henry. I went back to Atlanta, disappointed. I continued to press Corkin, to see if there was any way she would arrange a meeting without her preconditions. She continued to reply, but slowly, telling me she needed to discuss things with the MIT lawyers. Finally I received an email from Corkin informing me that she was “adamant” about being able to correct whatever I wrote, and that if “I cannot read the manuscript in advance of publication, it's a no go.”
The only way she was going to give me access to Henry, in other words, was if she could control the story I told about him.
SECRET WARS
DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN
D
R.
W
ILLIAM
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON AND
P
ATIENT
H
.
M
.,
MIT
C
LINICAL
R
ESEARCH
C
ENTER,
M
AY 1970
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Do you remember anything about Pearl Harbor?
H
.
M
.:
Well, it happened on a Sunday.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Ah. What date?
H
.
M
.:
Well, uh, December seventh.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
What year?
H
.
M
.:
Well, I think of 1941 right off.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
That's right. Um, do you remember how you yourself heard about Pearl Harbor? Where you were, or anything like that?
H
.
M
.:
No, I don't. Iâ¦
He paused, gathering his thoughts. He had been fifteen years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
H
.
M
.:
I say I don'tâ¦in a way, I think ofâ¦that my father toldâ¦was telling my mother itâ¦.He had heard about it beforeâ¦and thereâ¦I have an argument with myself right offâ¦.
The longer he thought about it, the more details of the day came trickling back.
H
.
M
.:
Daddy had gone down the street, to get the car in the garage. And saw the men that were at the gas station there, where they had the garage and everything. And they talked about it and told him. Because they'd been up all night in a way, and they heard about everything, and they were able to tell him. And then he told us about it. And we actually turned the radio on.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
And where were you? Where was this? At home?
H
.
M
.:
Yes, this was at home.
Wilson asked Henry about other milestones of the war.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Do you remember, er, VE Day?
H
.
M
.:
Well, Victory-in-Europe Day?
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Do you remember the celebration? Where were you when that happened? Do you remember anything about it?
H
.
M
.:
I don't remember exactly where I was, and then again I have an argâ¦uh, a feeling that I was in, uh, we were down, I say Hurd Parkâ¦and we were on a picnic. And the people heard about it there, on their car, because their car had a radio, our car did not, and they told everybody. And everybody hollered and jumped around.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
What was this for?
H
.
M
.:
For VE Day.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
I see. What about VJ Day? Do you remember how you heard about that?
H
.
M
.:
Wellâ¦
He paused.
H
.
M
.:
Noâ¦
He paused again, staying silent for about ten seconds. He searched his mind for a memory. He came up empty.
H
.
M
.:
The actual VJ Day I don't remember.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Do you know who is president now?
H
.
M
.:
No, I don't. To be truthful to you, I don't. Because I was wondering right along then. I said, well now, who is president now? Trying to put two and two together. And, well, some of the answers that I was giving, that were correct, and some of the way you were wording things, so I was associating them together in a way, and then maybe come up with it, the name and everything.
He paused.
H
.
M
.:
And I think of Dewey. Uh, was a governor of New York State.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
And he may be president now?
H
.
M
.:
And he may be president now. Thinking of the black suit that he wears and the white shirt. That's what I think of.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
What's he look like?
H
.
M
.:
Well. Five-foot-eight, about. Six or eight. Five-foot-six or eight. And, uh, his round head moreâ¦hair naturally, covering his headâ¦andâ¦
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
This is Dewey?
H
.
M
.:
Hmm?
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
This is Dewey?
H
.
M
.:
This is Dewey. And. And. Had a very large, uh, a large headâ¦a larger head than you'd expect for a person of his size.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
What about, er, Nixon?
H
.
M
.:
Well, I think of him being a president and then a vice president.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Yes, what happened to him? Is he still president?
H
.
M
.:
Andâ¦I think he is. Still president.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Does he have a wife?
H
.
M
.:
Pat Nixon.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Any children?
H
.
M
.:
And, er, children. I think of four boys right off.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Four boys?
H
.
M
.:
I think of boys. Four boys. And I think he has girls. I mean, three boys, anyhow. Not four boys, three.
Wilson paused. At the time of the interview, in 1970, Richard Nixon
was
president of the United States. He had also, years before, been vice president. His wife was named Pat. Henry's comments about Nixon's children were completely wrong, though. Nixon had two daughters, no sons. There was, however, a different prominent political family that
did
have three brothers and one sister. Four brothers, if you counted the one who died in action during World War II.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Do you know of any, anybody called Kennedy who has been president?
H
.
M
.:
Yeâ¦Well, he's been a president, and I believe, well, uhâ¦Trying to think of his firstâ¦Robert, isn't it? Robert Kennedy?
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Yes, what happened to him? Is he still president?
H
.
M
.:
No, I don't believe he isâ¦.I think of him being shot.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
He was shot? Where? When?
H
.
M
.:
The date I cannot tell you. And, er, I think of Ohio right off.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
I think it was further south and west than that.
H
.
M
.:
When you say that then I thought of Alabama.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
No, I think it was further southwest.
H
.
M
.:
Southwest. Isn'tâ¦it's around Ohio?
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Much further south and west.
H
.
M
.:
Much further soâ¦Well, uh, I think of Reno right off?
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Reno?
H
.
M
.:
Yes, Nevada.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
You think he was shot there?
H
.
M
.:
And I don't think he was shot thereâ¦.I think it was a town just outside that, though.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Yes, who was he shot by?
H
.
M
.:
Uh, well, the guy that pulled the trigger, naturally.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
That's right. [Laughter.]
H
.
M
.:
I don't remember his name.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
What, what were the circumstances of the shooting?
H
.
M
.:
Well, he wasâ¦I think of him on a reâ¦on a reviewâ¦andâ¦erâ¦the assassin was I think of two stories up, in a window, shooting downâ¦.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Yes. What do you mean, “He was on a review”? He was walking somewhere?
H
.
M
.:
He wasn't walking, he was in a car. He was riding in a car.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Was there anyone in the car with him?
H
.
M
.:
And I think of his wife right off.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Yes. What was she called?
H
.
M
.:
I think of Pat. And. There was a general in the car with him.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
A general?
H
.
M
.:
Yes, a general.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Was he shot, too?
H
.
M
.:
And there I have, erâ¦I know a bullet passed through him. And, uh, Iâ¦I say himâ¦Being of course both males there, in the backseat. That were sittingâ¦Er. And went intoâ¦Pat Nixon.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
She was shot?
H
.
M
.:
By the bullet that went through. One of them, or ricochet. No. I just thought: “ricochet,” right off. That came right like that. [He snapped his fingers.] I think it was a bullet that went through one of them and then ricocheted off, or something.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Who did it hit?
H
.
M
.:
Well, went through one of them and hit Pat.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Pat who?
H
.
M
.:
Nixon.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Uh-huh. Do youâ¦the assassin, you don't remember? If I told you his name began with Oâ¦The man who shot President Kennedy?
H
.
M
.:
I think of O'Hara right off.
M
ARSLEN-
W
ILSON:
Oâ¦Sâ¦
H
.
M
.:
Oswald.
Memory scientists divide amnesia into two basic types: anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde means “moving forward” and retrograde means “moving backward.” It was obvious since almost the moment he emerged from the operating room that Henry suffered from profound anterograde amnesia: He could hardly remember any new events as he moved forward through time. But he also, though less obviously, suffered from severe retrograde amnesia. Many of the years immediately preceding the operation were blank to him, and interviews helped paint a picture of just how far back Henry's retrograde amnesia stretched. His personal recollection of major world events appeared to be more or less intact up to 1944 and the German surrender. His personal recollection of the Japanese surrender the following year, however, appeared to have dropped away. He could remember where he was at the beginning of the war but not the end.
This fit nicely with the dominant theory of how experiences are turned into permanent long-term memories. According to that theory, memory tracesâthe first products of lived experiencesâexist in a fragile, impermanent state for years, a limbo of sorts. These traces reside in various parts of the brain, but if they're going to stay accessible down the road, the hippocampus must work on them, strengthening them, sending neural impulses to them and receiving impulses from them for years, until one day they become strong enough to live on their own, at least somewhat independent of the medial temporal lobes.
Henry's answers often supported that framework: He remembered what researchers expected him to remember, forgot what they expected him to forget.
