A soldier could see the world ‘backwards’ after being shot in the back of the head during combat.
The man, known only as ‘Patient M’, was wounded fighting on the Valencia front during the brutal Spanish Civil War in May 1938.
The wounded soldier, found lying on the ground, was transported to the hospital where he somehow survived without surgery or special care.
But when he regained consciousness two weeks after the blast, doctors noticed that his sensations were wrong.
He discovered that he saw the world both upside down and backwards.
Tests showed that the missile had partially destroyed the outer back layers of patient M’s brain on the left side. Photo A shows the entry and exit of the bullet to the back of the head. The numbers in diagram B correspond to the torn areas of the brain where the bullet pierced the brain
For example, as the doctor who treated him described in his book – published in two volumes between 1945-1950 – patient M found it strange to see men working upside down on scaffolding.
He could also read letters and numbers printed normal and backwards, without his brain being able to tell any difference between the two.
Thorough details of the fascinating case have now been shared in a medical journal.
It was published by Isabel Gonzalo, who met patient M while traveling to their family home to see her father, who originally treated him.
The patient’s identity has never been shared. According to the Spanish-language daily newspaper El Pais, he was born in a village in the province of Ciudad Real.
It is believed that Patient M, a soldier who fought for the Republican army, was shot by a hostile Francoist soldier.
The conflict began in July 1936, when a group of right-wing officers staged a military coup attempt to overthrow the left-wing government of the Popular Front.
It resulted in a three-year struggle between the republicans, loyal to the Popular Front, and nationalists, resulting in the nation being torn apart and Francisco Franco claiming a 36-year dictatorship until his death in 1975.
In August 1938 ‘Patient M’ was admitted to the Godella Military Health Hospital in Valencia, where Justo Gonzalo Rodriguez Leal (pictured) worked as a war doctor.
The soldier was initially taken to Valencia Provincial Hospital, where he was held for about three months.
In August 1938, he was admitted to the army-controlled Godella Military Health Hospital in Valencia, where neurologist Justo Gonzalo Rodriguez Leal worked as a war doctor.
Tests at the time showed that the missile had partially destroyed the outer back layers of patient M’s brain on the left side.
In addition to the other symptoms, Dr. Gonzalo also found that patient M saw objects in triplicate – triple vision of a single object – and experienced color blindness.
His sensory function was also affected, with his sense of hearing and touch reversed.
Write in the journal Neurologysaid neuropsychologist Alberto Garcia Molina and Dr. Gonzalo’s daughter Isabel, “Surprisingly, the patient goes about his daily life without any problems.”
Isabel, physicist and emeritus professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, discovered hundreds of documents and photographs related to patient M in her father’s archives.
Based on clinical observations of the soldier during the 1940s, Dr. Gonzalo had developed new hypotheses about brain dynamics.
He proposed that the effects of brain damage depended on both the size and position of the injury.
Therefore, brain damage does not destroy one specific function of the brain, but affects the balance of the functions – a theory that was new for its time and now widely accepted.
Dr. Gonzalo identified three syndromes: central (in which multiple senses are disrupted), paracentral (in which the effects of multiple senses are not evenly distributed), and marginal (in which only specific senses are affected).
“Patient M helps lay the foundation of Justo Gonzalo’s unique theory of brain dynamics,” the scientists wrote.
Patient M continued to see Doctor Gonzalo until the doctor’s death in 1986.