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Sanity -> A Case Of Amnesia (3/27/2010 8:28:41 PM)
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Imagine, he can't support himself because he can't remember his Social Security number or even his last name:
quote:
Amnesia victim hopes evidence that links him to Idaho could help uncover his identity
A vicious beating five years ago took away his memory, but he hopes evidence that links him to Idaho could help uncover his identity
The man who calls himself Benjaman Kyle tells his story in a soft, raspy voice with no hint of a regional accent.
He's careful because he is uncomfortable that others might think he is strange. He doesn't like interviews but says they are a necessary evil: He needs to know who he is.Kyle has had amnesia since an assault in Georgia. He holds on to snippets of memories, primarily of reading in libraries in Colorado and Indiana and an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the restaurant industry.
He believes he was born 10 years before Michael Jackson, on Aug. 29, 1948."Until someone rubs my nose in it, I am gonna keep believing that," Kyle said. For years, Kyle has languished with no good leads about his identity. So volunteer genealogists turned to Kyle's paternal DNA line.
"It was a fishing trip to find out what his last name is," said forensic genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrickwith the California company IdentiFinders International. Fitzpatrick is well known around the country for her ability to track the identity of just about anyone.
A year ago, DNA databases connected Kyle to the surname Powell, with a good match near Tulsa, Okla. Recently, Fitzpatrick discovered an even closer connection to a man named Robert Holden Davidson from Logan, Utah, who spent most of his adult life in Rexburg. Davidson died sometime in the late 1940s.
"I think we may have located a couple of (Davidson's) grandsons," Fitzpatrick said, and one has agreed to take a DNA test.
Still, a close DNA match may not directly lead to his identity. There could easily be an adoption or other family situation in Kyle's recent paternal background, Fitzpatrick said.
<snip>
As he recovered from the assault, he was passed among several hospitals. Without an identity, he had no way to pay the bills. He can't get a job, because he doesn't have a Social Security number. He can't get a driver's license or health insurance.
Social Security Administration officials in San Francisco confirmed that Kyle cannot obtain a number without an identity. He'd need a name, date of birth and place of birth, officials said.
Benefactors paid for surgery to repair severe cataracts. Seeing his face for the first time in 2006 was a shock, Kyle said. "I couldn't believe how old I looked."
Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/03/27/1132328/who-is-benjaman-kyle.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IdahostatesmancomLocalNews+%28IdahoStatesman.com+Local+News%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo#ixzz0jRDpt5fb
This is a good example of the way that government programs start as something innocent and simple then tend to grow into things never imagined nor originally intended - without your Social Security card these days, you are nothing.
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