Barbacena
One of the most gruesome stories was the hospital practice to remove the flesh from the dead consisting in putting them in barrels with acid. They would then sell the skeletons to medical universities. Many patients were forced to practice this activity and countless medical universities all over the country bought the Barbacena skeletons for their anatomy laboratories.
The most rebellious patients or those who were considered disobedient were kept in cells with their hands and feet cuffed and underwent all sorts of methods and techniques. They would undergo electroshocks: some of them would die, others would come out with broken teeth and bones.
The hospital had a surgery center where psychosurgeries were performed, like lobotomy more commonly known as leucotomy. The patient, after this surgery, would become half lethargic, in a low emotional state, which was considered an improvement in psychiatric disease symptoms.
In 1979, Franco Basaglia, the well known Italian psychiatrist, visited the Hospital of Barbacena and compared it to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi concentration camps.
The hospital, at its peak, housed about 5000 patients. They would come from all over the country, packed in a train that stopped in front of the pavilions. This sinister and terrible vehicle was known as "The Madman Train."
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