Yeah, I know that Hurricane Katrina and lobotomy are not humorous subjects, but I couldn’t help but chuckle when this reporter confused “phlebotomy” with “lobotomy”. I contacted him just to be certain that it was a mistake, and of course it was.
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State’s hospitality helps ease discomfort of leaving home

It came down to her job or her kids, Sakura Johnson said.

The job lost.

“I couldn’t risk it. I wanted my kids to be safe,” said Johnson of Slidell, La., who fled Hurricane Katrina with her family at noon Sunday and was camped out in Jackson’s Mississippi Coliseum by 8 or 9 that night.

“For the record, I may be out of a job. I draw blood,” she said Monday, as children merrily ran about the coliseum, pushing toy cars across the floor and people’s feet.

“I was supposed to be on the job today. I work in the lab at West Jefferson Medical Center — in the lobotomy department. I may be an ex-lobotomist now.”

Figuring the Marrero, La., hospital wasn’t likely to offer emergency brain-lobe surgery today — “that would be crazy,” she said — Johnson decided to flee her home in Slidell, about 32 miles northeast of New Orleans.

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I just discovered a wonderful book by James van Amber called “Regina’s Record”. It’s about his mother who was … I hardly know what to say … who was brutalized by the Veteran’s Administration psychiatric system. Even the word “brutalized” seems mild compared to what she went through … endless shock treatments, cold hydrotherapy sessions, abuse by other patients (and no doubt by staff as well), hours upon hours spent in restraints, and an illegal lobotomy (he can prove it was illegal). All this the VA concluded was “superior treatment, even by today’s standards”. Dear God … what does that say about today’s standards?

James’s description of “hydrotherapy” is stunning. This ‘treatment’ is usually considered innocuous when compared to other ‘therapies’ that patients have endured - it is not. The horror, the hours she spent packed in cold sheets able only to move her head, the impotent screams of hopelessness that her jailers dutifully noted - it’s unbelievable.

“Regina’s Record” is well written and heartbreaking. I can’t recommend it enough. This is a “must read” book on this topic.

You can order it here in the US. You can order it here in the UK.

This book is well worth your while.

Since one of our members is a nurse NurseZone decided to do a story on our efforts:

Nurse Campaigns to Raise Awareness of Lobotomy

Long after lobotomy fell out of favor in treating mental illness, epilepsy and headaches, adult children of patients subjected to the brutal, debilitating procedure have begun championing their loved ones’ memories and trying to convince the Nobel Foundation to revoke the Nobel Prize given to its inventor, Egas Moniz.

“It’s not going to happen, but [the campaign] is getting people to talk about what has happened,” said Carol Noell Duncanson, RN, of Marietta, Georgia. “Families are struggling every single day with results.”

Moniz developed leukotomy, later called lobotomy, in 1936, to treat mental illness. He received the Nobel Prize in 1949.

Physicians performing the procedure would drill holes in the patient’s head and through the incision destroy prefrontal brain tissue. Lobotomy affected patients’ personalities, and they frequently became dependent on others for their care. Still physicians persisted in performing the surgeries.

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