You may have seen the movie ‘Rain Man’, but you may not know the character,
Raymond Babbit, was inspired by a real person named Kim Peek.
Kim had a rare condition called savant syndrome, which gave him amazing talents
including a phenomenal memory.
As creative license is often used on the big screen, we thought it was worth shedding
some light on the true story of Kim Peek. You’ll see it’s even more interesting than the
movie!
Kim’s brain was a bit different to most…
In 1951, Kim was born in with macrocephaly – a condition that caused his head to be
abnormally large.
When doctors looked into it a little more, they also found he had damage to his
cerebellum, and the bundle of nerves that usually connects the two hemispheres of the
brain was missing.
Kim’s unbelievable memory was clear from very early on
When Kim was nine months old, doctors told his parents that he’d never be able to walk
or talk and recommended he live in an ‘institution’ – an idea that thankfully, Kim’s
parents dismissed.
But when Kim was just over a year old, he started memorizing entire books that his
parents read to him – after only hearing them once.
Even more amazingly, after he’d heard a story, he’d put the book upside down on his
shelf to show he knew it off by heart, and to make sure/nobody would try to read it to
him again.
Placing books upside down once he’d finished them is something Kim kept doing his
whole life.
Once he learned to read, his amazing memory continued. By the age of 7 he’d
memorized every single word of the bible.
Doctors suggested drastic treatments
Growing up, Kim did have trouble with his motor skills and found it hard to do things like
buttoning up his shirt.
Also, because of the weight of his head, he was not able to walk until he was 4 years old,
and then he did so sideways.
When Kim was only six years old, doctors recommended he have a lobotomy to ‘cure’ his
non-stop talking, fidgeting and pacing.
