Just seeing what you think about this:
Recently. July 2007, my wife had a stroke. It did not affect her physically but it affected her mental abilities to an extent that she could no longer fulfill the duties of her employment position so she had to take a medical leave from Palo Alto Nursing.
Palo Alto Nursing required her to bring in papers from the doctors as an excuse for being off work and therefore collecting medical disability from the State of California. I know she brought in these papers because I was with her and present when she handed them over.
In November 2007 Palo Alto Nursing terminated her employment saying she didn’t turn in the papers and the lady she handed them to (in front of me) says she never got them. She tried to better herself and took a 2 hour a day job at a drug rehab house cooking. It brought in very little money but it was a start.
In any event they laid her off and had someone from the house do the cooking so she is unemployed again. I went back to work at Durham School Services (I have worked there since 1997) I make a decent wage but not really enough to support 2 people in California.
In any event I now have been off work for 10 days due to an eye infection that prevents me from driving a school bus. But finally I get my Kaiser Insurance. So we make appointments for my eye and a nasty infection my wife got next to the bridge of her nose. I go in to my appointment at 11:00 am and have to pay a $30.00 co-pay (That’s almost 2 hours work for me right there). The doctor see’s me and listens to MY diagnoses and concurs with it (since I have had it on and off all my life) then she decides not to prescribe ANY treatment for me instead refers me to Kaiser Ophthalmology Dept way over in Santa Clara to see me at 4 pm.
Now at 2:00 pm my wife has a appointment with her doctor in Santa Clara Kaiser so we go to that (another $30.00 co-pay) but at least they treated her.
4 pm rolls around and we head to the 4th floor to see the doctor, and they want another $30.000 to see the doctor I cancelled my appointment right there.
That would have been $90.00 just for doctors on top of the outrageous amount the collect monthly just to join the damn program and the $30.00 we spent on medicine while we were there.
WHERE DOES IT STOP?
Email me what you think please !!! howarddully@comcast.net
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Book Review: My Lobotomy
I just finished a fascinating memoir by Howard Dully, a man who was lobotomized by one of the operation's pioneers in 1960. For those of you who aren't sure what a lobotomy is, essentially it was a procedure performed on thousands of mental patients and schizophreniacs from the 50s into the 70s. The earliest procedures involved drilling into the skull to remove the frontal lobe of the brain. Dr. Walter Freeman, the man who lobotomized Howard Dully (amongst thousands of others), invented a new way to preform the operation: by inserting an ice pick above the eyeball. After the ice pick was in the brain, Freeman twirled it around in a fashion not too different from how you would beat an egg. The result was a heavily damanged frontal lobe, which often rendered these mental patients vegetables for the rest of their lives.In Dully's case, it didn't render him a vegetable. He wasn't a schizophreniac. Basically he was just a little shit-ass who liked to cause trouble. If he were a child today, they'd probably put him on Adderall and send him home. In 1960, he had his frontal lobe scrambled with an ice pick.
For forty year's after Howard's operation, his life was a mess. He was disowned by his family. He was in and out of asylums, jails, and halfway houses. Finally, in the year 2000, Howard decided to stop using the lobotomy as an excuse to go through life as a victim. He began asking questions and researching why he was lobotomized and what he had done to deserve such an awful thing. The results of this research were detailed in his memoir, My Lobotomy.
I wouldn't say this is a must-read book. But if you have a little morbid curiosity, you might enjoy this glimpse into the life of a man victimized by one of medicine's most embarrassing moments. The fact that I read it cover to cover is more than I can say for most books I open. Anyone who wants my copy, get in touch and I'll mail it to you.
- Mood:
happy
Book Title: My Lobotomy: A Memoir
Author/Editor: Howard Dully and Charles Fleming
Category: Autobiography
# of Pages: 265
My rating of the book, F(worst), A(best): B+/A-
Short description/summary of the book: In 1960, Howard Dully was forced by his quintessentially wicked stepmother into the hands of Dr. Walter Freeman, the P.T. Barnum-like popularizer of the transorbital lobotomy. When the crude brain surgery failed, Howard's family abandoned him to the state. For the next thirty years he was institutionalized, jailed, homeless, and alcoholic.
Then, his stepmother dead and his father in frail health, he began to ask questions: Who had ordered the lobotomy? Why had his stepmother wanted to destroy him? Why had his father abandoned him? And - had he done some hideous thing, lost in a post-operative fog, for which he was being punished?
Howard's courageous quest caught the attention of radio documentarian Dave Isay and became the subject of the record-setting NPR radio broadcast "My Lobotomy." This book goes deep inside Howard's story - and the history of lobotomy - to reveal each step of his chilling, and ultimately redemptive, journey.
My Thoughts: I was a little nervous to start this book because, hello, lobotomy? That's not pretty. The book, however, is well written and very neatly ogannized. The only thing that made me squirm in my seat wasn't what he wrote. It was a photo at the beginning of a chapter showing Howard during the operation. As I was reading it, I kept thinking "This poor guy! He's never know a moments peace." Fortunately, it has a happy ending. The only thing I didn't like was when he was talking about Dr. Walter Freeman's notes, he kept going on and on. It dragged a bit, but it soon picked up. This is a very emotional book, I would suggest keeping some klenex nearby. You might want it.
(Howard August Dully)
PERSONAL: Born November 30, 1948, in Oakland, CA; son of Rodney Lloyd and June
Louise Dully; married, c. 1996; wife’s name Barbara: children: Rodney, Justin
(stepson). Nationality: American
ADDRESSES: Home--San Jose, CA. Email--howarddully@comcast.net.
CAREER: Trainer of school bus drivers.
WRITINGS:
(With Charles Fleming) My Lobotomy: A Memoir, Crown Publishers (New York, NY),
2007.
SIDELIGHTS:
As a young child growing up in California, Howard Dully was typical in many
ways. He was active and liked to play chess and ride his bicycle. Tragedy in his
early life made him somewhat withdrawn and resistant to authority, as might be
natural for a boy whose mother died when he was four years old giving birth to a
son who would be mentally handicapped and whose father, a war veteran, was
emotionally distant and physically abusive. When his father remarried, Dully’s
new stepmother, a divorcée with two children of her own, took an instant dislike
to the boy. She insisted that young Dully must have psychological problems
because he occasionally stole candy or other items of food from the kitchen
cupboards and often adopted a sour attitude. She took her stepson to several
psychiatrists who all insisted that he was a typical eleven-year-old. Then she
located Dr. Walter Freeman. Freeman was famous for championing the lobotomy,
making it a simple, ten-minute procedure that he performed on hundreds of
patients for reasons ranging from schizophrenia to postpartum depression. He
agreed to perform the procedure on young Howard, and Dully’s father quickly gave
his approval to his new wife when she threatened him with divorce if he did not
consent. So, when Dully was just twelve years old, he became the youngest
patient ever to have the procedure done, an operation that was completely
unnecessary. Dully, with the assistance of journalist Charles Fleming, discusses
the consequences of that fateful decision in his My Lobotomy: A Memoir.
The effects of lobotomies, which are now shunned universally by psychiatrists,
were wide-ranging because the procedure was so imprecise. Freeman would take a
device called a leucotome (originally, a common household ice pick was used),
inserted it through the patient’s tear ducts, and severed nerve connections in
the frontal lobe. The desired effect was to change a patient’s personality from
aggressive and agitated to calm and pliant. In actuality, some patients were
turned into living zombies; others were permanently crippled in other ways.
Dully, however, is a rare exception in that he eventually became a productive
member of society who is married, has children, and holds down a steady job. For
many years, though, this was not the case. After the procedure, Dully was
institutionalized; as an adult, he became a drug-addicted, petty crook angry at
the world for what had happened. Love for his wife helped redeem him, and he
came to forgive everyone, including his parents and Dr. Freeman. “I think I was
angry at society for a long time, but I went through that and now I don’t think
there’s any point in dwelling on it. I blame everyone for what happened
including myself. I was a mean little ruffian,” he commented to Elizabeth Day in
a London Observer article, adding: “I don’t think Freeman was evil. I think he
was misguided.”
While he has managed to lead a fairly normal life, there is no doubt that the
operation changed him permanently. Dully notes that, after the procedure, he
could no longer play chess. He also lacks ambition and senses that his
personality is now different from what it might have been had he been spared the
procedure. “I don’t feel physically different from anyone else,” he told the
Observer interviewer. “I get eye infections because I think they destroyed my
tear ducts.” Despite the relatively happy ending to Dully’s story, New York
Times Book Reviewer critic William Grimes called My Lobotomy “one of the saddest
stories you’ll ever read.” Sarah Flowers, writing in the School Library Journal,
described it as a “compelling and tragic story,” while a Kirkus Reviews writer
declared it “profoundly disturbing.”
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
BOOKS
Dully, Howard, and Charles Fleming, My Lobotomy: A Memoir, Crown (New York, NY),
2007.
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2007, review of My Lobotomy.
New York Times Book Review, September 14, 2007, William Grimes, “Spikes in the
Brain, and a Search for Answers.”
Observer (London, England), January 13, 2008, Elizabeth Day, “He Was Bad, So
They Put an Ice Pick in His Brain,” review of My Lobotomy.
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), September 2, 2007, Andrea Simakis, “Howard Dully’s
Searing Story of His Lobotomy at Age 12.”
Publishers Weekly, June 4, 2007, review of My Lobotomy, p. 40; December 24,
2007, review of My Lobotomy, p. 54.
San Francisco Chronicle, September 10, 2007, June Sawyers, “Review: Howard
Dully’s Memoir about Having a Lobotomy at Age 12.”
San Jose Mercury News, November 18, 2005, “`My Lobotomy’: Man Opens up about
Life-altering Procedure.”
School Library Journal, December, 2007, Sarah Flowers, review of My Lobotomy, p.
162.
Tampa Tribune, January 21, 2008, “Lobotomy: Proceeding without Caution.”
ONLINE
Howard Dully Home Page, http://howarddully.com (March 1, 2008).
Mind Hacks, http://www.mindhacks.com/ (February 19, 2007), “Five Minutes with
Howard Dully,” interview with Howard Dully.*
Time has come today
Young hearts can go their way
Can't put it off another day
I don't care what others say
They say we don't listen anyway
Time has come today
The rules have changed today (Hey)
I have no place to stay (Hey)
I'm thinking about the subway (Hey)
My love has flown away (Hey)
My tears have come and gone (Hey)
Oh my Lord, I have to roam (Hey)
I have no home (Hey)
I have no home (Hey)
Now the time has come (Time)
There's no place to run (Time)
I might get burned up by the sun (Time)
But I had my fun (Time)
I've been loved and put aside (Time)
I've been crushed by the tumbling tide (Time)
And my soul has been psychedelicized (Time)
His Lobotomy
As I mentioned yesterday, I've been reading this book by Howard Dully. Not long after I posted that blog, I was excited to see that I had a comment! The comment was from Dully himself! I thought it was a joke, but after checking out his site, it's totally legit. My own friends don't even comment here, but the author of the book I'm reading does??? Even if all he does is Google himself all day long, I thought it was pretty damn cool.
I finally finished the book last night. I say finally, but really, I read it in three days. It's just that any time I wasn't reading, I was wanting to. I've found myself a little obsessed with this story. And why? I was never lobotomized, I was never tortured by my step-mother, I never even had a step-mother, and I don't think anyone hated me as a child. But I think I resonated with the loneliness and insecurity the author always felt. No one ever told him that he was loved and I can relate to that. Even though I hear those words now, I don't remember ever hearing it as a kid. If I did, it obviously wasn't enough or not significant to me. I was a very quit child and no one really talked to me. My dad was at work and my mom was usually in bed, depressed, or working in her art studio. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't exactly neglected. I took dance lessons and had ponies and nice clothes. But I remember it was like pulling teeth to get my parents to attend my dance recitals and just do what all the other parents did for their children. I don't hold a grudge about any of that now, but as a kid, that was really confusing and hurtful. I spent a lot of time in my room, alone.
So after I finished the book I found the original NPR broadcast of which Dully's book is drawn from and listened to the 22 minute-long biography, and it's wonderful.
It's hard to imagine a time when a "medical" practice like this was normal. That no one really stood up for the victims of this procedure. Today there would be many organizations and gala's held to raise money for these people. There would be some fancy celebrity at the head of it all and one of those Lance Armstrong bracelets.
The book also made me think of my mother's brother. I never met him (though he was supposedly there at my birth), but he was diagnosed as a schizophrenic in his late teens and sent from the East Coast to live in a mental institution in Tacoma, where at 60-something, he is still living. I'm sure he is a ward of the state of Washington; a throw away. Could his problem(s) really have been that bad? It must have been sometime in the 1960's when he was sent there. What kept my grandparents from sending him to see Dr. Freeman, I wonder? Is it better to just lock someone up and throw away the key? No one spoke of him growing up. I think when my parents moved to Washington they might have tried to visit him once or twice. Maybe it was too painful.
Well, if Dully is reading this now, I would like him to know that his story really touched my heart. I know I'm not the only one. I know he's received tons of letters and e-mails telling him how brave he is. In an odd way, I almost feel proud of him. I guess I'm just happy to see that someone who endured so much has finally come full circle and has let go of the pain. I have a feeling he'll be on Oprah soon.
Posted by thecandyqueen at 9:09 AM
Labels: books, howard dully, lobotomy
never really thought much about the subject of lobotomies...
i spend an hour traveling to work and back home Monday through Friday and enjoy listening to audio books rather than the radio or cds. i listen to all kinds of stuff - usually fiction romance, sci-fi or whatever else gets my attention at the library. i just finished listening to what i thought was fiction, but turned out to be a biography by Howard Dully called My Lobotomy. i don't think i'll ever use the term lobotomy to be funny again. i have been totally blown away by this book. this man describes his life from childhood to adulthood. he was given a lobotomy at the age of 12, because his step mother could not control him and his father was too complacent to object. the lobotomy did not "work" to the step mother's satisfaction so she talked his father in to giving him up as a ward of the state. it's amazing that this man turned out so well. he is in his 50s now and is doing well. i would love to meet him personally and just give him a hug. he worked with Sound Portraits on a documentary of his life which aired on NPR in Novemeber 2005. take a listen - it will take you out of your comfort zone and make you think a little.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor
I'm forwarding you an email from a viewer of the program "The Lobotomist" to you. He asked to be put in touch with you.
I forwarded your previous message about your book to producers Barak Goodman and John Maggio. I hope they have responded. It would be unusual for us to mention a book in the program. We list books and Web sites about the topic and by film participants on our Further Reading page at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/loboto
Viewers were very moved by your story in the program. Here are two emails that we got following the broadcast:
This program had me in tears, and when the interview with Howard Dully progressed I saw myself in him, I'm close to the smae age and his depiction of his life parallels mine to a tee.. there is a part missing and has most of it.
Howard if you read this please contact me..
How this inhumanity could go on for so long is unexcusable, especially with it following so closely what happened in Germany during the war..
truly sad..
----
Howard Dully's story really affected me. The reasons for his labotomy were things my son did all the time, such as wearing unseasonal clothes. I saw my son as a Dennis the Menace and loved every moment with what to me was a typical little boy. To think that someone would have thought he need a labotomy scares me to death. He is now a grown man with a good marriage and job and about to give me a grandchild. Look at what would have been wasted!
email_subject: The Lobotomist: What's Your View
content: As a college professor, I have taught on this very material for the past 5 years. I am grateful that PBS has aired this material. I spent years in graduate school without learning much about medicine and its less than scientific past. I thank you from the bottom of my emotional, social, professional, and intellectual heart.
By L.A. Weekly Books Critics
Wednesday, December 26, 2007 - 8:00 am
MY LOBOTOMY | By HOWARD DULLY and CHARLES FLEMING | Crown Publishers
Dr. Walter Freeman, a self-proclaimed expert in psychosurgery, once assaulted the brains of 25 women with an icepicklike tool, scrambling their frontal lobes with promises of a “cure” for mental illness — all in one day. Freeman, driving across country in his “lobotomobile,” went on to perform thousands of other surgeries. One patient was 12-year-old Howard Dully, who, with the journalist Charles Fleming, now tells his incredible story, from family rejection (when Freeman failed to “fix” him) to living in mental institutions to dealing with alcoholism, drug abuse and prison. It is in retaking his past that Dully ultimately finds peace, and his place as a kind of laureate for the lobotomized.
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