A German man was locked up at 18 in a mental asylum, after he was diagnosed as a dangerous lunatic.
After having spent twenty years in the Warstein institute, it turned out that the man was in fact suffering from Tourette syndrome, and he would have been able to live an independent life –The Local’s German issue.
After the misdiagnoses was detected, the man received a financial compensation, and, in theory, he could have been let out; however, this wasn’t possible. Because he suffered so much psychological damage during the decades spent in the asylum, he has become incapable to live and independent life. Finally, he was moved to another wing of the building, and he remains completely dependent on the doctors that work there. The man’s doctor called the case a tragedy.
The man, according to The Local, has been living in the asylum for 38 years now. His medical documents are locked up; therefore, it cannot be found out what sort of injustice he had suffered and how it was possible to misdiagnose him so grossly. Not even the man’s lawyer was allowed to look into the documents.