The Slovakian guy didn't clue them in that he was speaking a real language.

He gave the hospital cover to pretend they didn't know the whole time. Cover to pretend it wasn't just cruelty for its own sake, perpetrated by bigots decades ago and continued by hospital administrators and staff who knew that if they didn't look the other way, they'd lose their jobs. Sure, probably nobody there knew Hungarian, but they've heard of other fucking languages. Jesus people are the worst.

From Wikipedia: Toma lived under the name András Tamás (Андраш Тамаш). A Czech linguist of Slovak descent, Karol Moravčík, identified him as Hungarian, and on 11 August 2000, Toma arrived back in Hungary where his family was identified through DNA matching. Since he was never discharged, Toma was promoted to sergeant major by the Minister of Defense, and since his military service had been continuous, his decades of accumulated unpaid salary were paid in full.

At least they didn't screw him out of his military pension.

the craziest part to me is that in 50+ years he didn't pick up any Russian at all. I didn't speak a word of Spanish but after living in New Mexico for two years I could at least understand and speak some Spanish.

I mean at that point even if he wasn't mentally ill he is now

He got promoted and all his back pay up until 2000 too since he was never actually discharged