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Electro Shock Treatment.

Everything ready oxygen ready to be administered the electroshock apparatus connected to the electric supply. Patient wheeled in, in his bed six male nurses to hold him down.  Two Doctors to apply the shock treatment, a switch touched the patient rose up in his bed, six male nurses tried their best to keep the patient in the bed. Patient wheeled back to his ward. Patient now extremely quiet it was as if the electroshock had cut off that part of his brain that was his personality. How long would this circumstance hold a week a month, then again for another of these barbarous shock treatments? All of the staff hated these days when Patients were wheeled to the room where this all took place. I even think that the Doctors themselves hated the shock treatments.

I have been told that this form of therapy has now been stopped but this story is to tell you of what happened one day during such a shock treatment. I will mention no names. I was in charge of the oxygen I had all ready and as the shock treatment finished I placed the mask over the patients face, I had my hand on his pulse. The racing pulse told me that something out of the ordinary was going to happen. The breathing slowly returned to normal and I took away the oxygen facemask. This was not the patient that had just been electro shocked a stranger lay in the bed. The patients eyes opened wide his mouth formed the one word Why? None of the others had noticed anything wrong not even the two Doctors. Switching off the apparatus such as the oxygen bottle and the electroshock machine, I helped to push the patients bed back to the ward. The other walked away to see to the other patients, I asked him who he was and what was he doing in this bed. I am not going to ask you to believe what I am now going to tell you but his own words were I was walking down the Baxter Street, when I was lifted bodily and felt a terrible shock in my head and saw you putting that mask over my head. I felt a choking and the inrush of oxygen soothed my wanting to struggle. Why me I did my best to soothe him and tell him that all was well. The ward door opened and two Policemen brought in the Patient that we had just electro shocked. How this happened I do not know. I immediately place the shocked patient in a bed and gave him oxygen. I pushed the two beds together, thinking that the two patients could tell each other what had happened. I had to part the two patients they did nothing but quarrel and this upset the other patients.

I had a patient too many on the ward and I was the only one to know about it. The original patient that had been shocked a case of a split personality. What happened next I couldn’t believe that I was a witness to it? The two patients had what looked like a wrestling match then suddenly there was only one patient. I had seen with my own eyes that the patient that was electro shocked and the one that the Police brought in melted into each other before my eyes they became one person. I can see that you do not believe what I have written but it is true the patient with the split personality owing to the electro shock got rid of his dual personality. I often wonder if the Police had not brought in the other patient would my patient have been cured. You still do not believe me, well I Bern the scribbler cannot help that, it is something that I lived through and I have often wondered if any other electro shocked Patients have ever lost the second person living in their brain. Hope you all sleep well this coming night. It all happened so long ago that I do not dream of this episode any longer. Bern