A Real Life "50 First Dates"

[Kerk]

Link to the article: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/386954...ople?Gt1=43001

for lazy people:

By Michael Inbar
TODAYshow.com contributor
updated 8/16/2010 10:04:48 AM ET

For most people, a sit-down interview with Matt Lauer live in front of millions of viewers would be unforgettable. But while appearing on TODAY Monday, guest Michelle Philpots forgot Lauer’s name before their talk was even finished.

Philpots, 47, has her memory wiped clean each day — sometimes each minute — by anterograde amnesia, brought on by head injuries she suffered in two vehicle crashes more than 20 years ago. She wakes up every morning believing it is 1994, the last year from which she can conjure up memories.

Thus, for the Englishwoman, John Major is still prime minister, Ace of Base tops the music charts, and “Forrest Gump” is the movie everyone is flocking to see. And while such amnesia has been played to humorous effect in movies like “Groundhog Day” and “50 First Dates,” it can be sad and sometimes devastating for Philpots.

“Right at the beginning for me, it was heartbreaking, knowing that I was different,” she told Lauer while her supportive husband, Ian, sat by her side. “I didn’t want to be different.

TODAY
Philpots’ serious car accident, pictured, was the second mishap to damage her brain. The two accidents combined to afflict her with a rare form of anterograde amnesia.“I wanted to be back to the normal me and not this shell of a person. I want my career back. I want to be able to say, ‘I remember when’ again — but knowing [that’s] the life you’ve lost, you can’t do it.”

Rare malady
Philpots’ rare condition is the result of a motorcycle accident in 1985, compounded by a serious car accident five years later. In 1994, she was diagnosed with epilepsy as a result of her head injuries.

Her condition rapidly deteriorated: Not only did Philpots suffer from frequent seizures, she began to become more and more forgetful. She lost her office job when she copied the same document repeatedly during a work shift. Her memory eventually slid to the point where little to nothing stuck past the year 1994.

Thought this was interesting, since I've never read anything like it.

[bechyni]

Haven't really read into the disease except seeing it in movies. There is no cure for this/any research being done about it?

[quannum]

someone needs to tell her to remember sammy jankis

[Galaika]

It's not a disease, its brain damage. Can't repair a physically damaged brain.

[BerenTebogo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDNDRDJy-vo

Can't find the exact video but a few years ago in one of my intro psych classes we watched a video similar to this about a man who had lost his ability to store information as short term memory yet retained his ability to access ltm. Pretty interesting, something about an injury to the corpus callosum or some such.

Shit happens.

It's not a disease, its brain damage. Can't repair a physically damaged brain.

This. Pretty sure in the case I'm thinking of they had to sever the CC to allow him to function at all or something. Vague memory of a video is vague.

[Tyche]

The Neice of a girl I work with jumped off a trampoline, hit her head, was in a coma for a while, and woke up with no short-term memory. THe doctors think that it can come back, but everyday she has to go to rehab, and everyday they have to remind her. She seems to be getting better, whereas she knows that something is wrong. It's really strange and interesting. Sadly, she's only 7.

[Jeduah]

I'd kind of like to see her reaction to Avatar on blu-ray while she still thinks it's 1994.

[Not Kuno]

I remember seeing something like this in a video in my abnormal psych class. He would write in his journal that he is the real person and everyone else is an impostor because he wouldn't remember that he wrote the same stuff the day before or something. It was pretty depressing.

[Eratosthenes]

I remember hearing of this in a psych class as well. The guy in the case study was Clive Wearing.

[Heavencloud]

Funny, I didn't know this could actually happen when I watched Memento.

[Kerk]

The Neice of a girl I work with jumped off a trampoline, hit her head, was in a coma for a while, and woke up with no short-term memory. THe doctors think that it can come back, but everyday she has to go to rehab, and everyday they have to remind her. She seems to be getting better, whereas she knows that something is wrong. It's really strange and interesting. Sadly, she's only 7.

wow thats really sad :/

[Colenzo]

I'd kind of like to see her reaction to Avatar on blu-ray while she still thinks it's 1994.

pretty much

[Cyn]

I'd kind of like to see her reaction to Avatar on blu-ray while she still thinks it's 1994.

If she'd have made it another year she could have just seen Jumanji, and it had better CG.

[Qalbert]

someone needs to tell her to remember sammy jankis

yea buddy

[SamanosukeShiva]

RL tales of memories, the story in the anime she got the brain injury from car accident too lol

[Acturus]

I may have anterograde amnesia, but at least I don't have anterograde amnesia.

[Furtwangler]

I may have anterograde amnesia, but at least I don't have anterograde amnesia.

[Andarvi]

That movie fucking sucked.

[Warudo Ecksu]

I can't imagine how depressing that must be for her husband. What a guy to stay with her through this

[miokomioko]

Groundhog Day had nothing to do with amnesia.