Amnesia and What a TBI Survivor Can’t Remember

Amnesia: Part Six of Angela’s Story

Amnesia is portrayed in the movies as this curtain that falls, blackness before and after, a totally confused person, who doesn’t know who they are, or anything about the life they had lived.  Real life amnesia is different, it often begins with the point of the accident, and can exist even when a person is not confused.  See an extensive discussion in my blogs at http://www.tbilaw.com/blog/2009/09

Angela has a period of classic amnesia, not remembering the 10 minutes before the accident and being confused when she got to the ER.  Yet, the full extent of her amnesia was never appreciated until much later, because no one was checking for amnesia in the critical period after her discharge.

What Angela Remembers Before the Accident

Angela talks about how she remembers getting up that morning, going to the gym like she usually does and plans on stopping at the grocery store before she went into work.  She also remembers going into Walmart which was across the street from her office and picking up a bunch of broccoli and an apple to take to work.  That is all she remembers.  She isn’t even sure if she remembers checking out before she left the store.  She doesn’t remember the accident.  She doesn’t remember being in the hospital.  She doesn’t remember having visitors in the hospital.  She has been told about all of this but doesn’t remember any of it.

The first thing that she remembers is that her sister called her and asked her where she was and she had forgotten that she had been invited to her sisters house for a July 4th barbecue.  This was about two weeks after the accident. She had just had the conversation regarding the barbecue the day before.  Angela then realized that she couldn’t remember any of the details or even the conversation taking place at all.

For Part Seven of Angela’s story, click here.