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Louisiana
In what comes as a plot straight out of a Hollywood movie, a 60-year-old woman in the US state of Louisiana has recalled the time she went to hospital with a headache, only to forget memories from the past 30 years.
The case is from 2018 when then-56-year-old Kim Denicola developed an intense headache and blurry vision during a bible study group session, according to her family. After Denicola woke up in the hospital emergency room, she had no recollection that she was married and had two children, essentially missing the past 30 years of her existence.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I get up and go to bible study and think I’m going to wake up in the hospital and I’m going to be 60 years old," Denicola was quoted as saying by WAFB.
The last thing Denicola remembered was her final day of school. She remained oblivious to the fact that computers had been developed and that the country had seen several new presidents.
Denicola remembers she answered Ronald Regan when the nurse asked her who the president of the United States was back then.
According to doctors, Denicola has been diagnosed with extensive amnesia, officially transient global amnesia or TGA. The National Library of Medicine stated that TGA is a “temporary, anterograde amnesia with an acute onset” that mostly affects individuals middle-aged and older".
However, the doctors still cannot pinpoint the exact cause for it despite exhaustive tests and scans.
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Denicola's life post memory loss
Five years later, Denicola says nothing has come back.“They told me, if by now I haven’t gotten it, then I probably won’t.”
Denicola penned her life in the journal pages before her memory-loss incident. However, reading them now makes her believe she is looking into someone else’s life and not every memory is a good one.
“I’ve even gone through some of them and torn the pages out," she said, adding: “I’ve lost a lot of Christmases, so it’s a big deal. It’s unbelievable to me as it probably is to other people."
Despite the problems that come with memory loss to such an extent, Denicola is looking at the silver lining. The grandmother says she is re-discovering things she loved and insists that she's moving forward. Denicola said her Christmas dream is to have her entire family back together celebrating under one roof.
(With inputs from agencies)