She went to bed and woke up with no memory of the last 20 years
Claire, 43, contracted the virus and went to bed.
When it was time to get up her husband was unable to wake her.
When she woke up in the hospital, the doctors discovered that she had lost her memory, and they have no explanation for how it happened.
Walla!
health
01/03/2022
Tuesday, 01 March 2022, 08:55 Updated: 10:09
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Memory can be a deceptive thing, and this story proves just how much: A mother of two who went to bed after feeling unwell woke up two weeks later and 20 years were erased from her memory as non-existent.
Claire Maft-Reese, 43, began suffering from "cold-like symptoms" in March 2021 after contracting the Max Structure virus and deciding to lie down to rest, the British Mirror reported.
But when her husband Scott tried to wake her up the next morning, she was left unconscious.
The terrified husband called an ambulance and Claire was rushed to the Royal Hospital in London.
Once she arrived, she had a number of seizures and was connected to a ventilator.
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To the full article
Claire, a journalist by profession, was put into an initiated coma in the hope that her body would begin to recover - and fortunately, she woke up 16 days later.
But even though she was conscious, she was not like yesterday and the day before - and could not remember the most basic facts about her own life.
"I could remember the face of my family but I asked about our cats - one of them had been put to sleep two weeks earlier and another three years before."
Although she recognized Scott, her husband, she did not remember his marriage proposal, their wedding day or their children's birthdays.
"I did not remember holidays or anything like that. I did not remember the events of 9/11, the corona or the closures," she said, joking that "fortunately" she also forgot that she chose to raise their children in homeschooling.
Scott remembered the horror that gripped him when he saw his wife in a coma - without having any idea what was wrong with her.
"At first I thought she was suffering from a stroke and when she was first taken to the hospital they thought it was a brain haemorrhage but it was ruled out," he said.
"In the first week they did not know what was going on."
Claire was eventually diagnosed with encephalitis and Scott was relieved when his wife woke up.
However, he described the heartbreak he experienced when he realized she did not remember the last 20 years of her life.
"She was talking about dead family members in the present tense and I had to tell her the news that they were no longer alive." I had to sit down and tell her who died and she mourned a second time, "he shared. "By watching movies and looking at pictures to see if memories start to ring familiar to her or so she can relive things."
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Claire's awakening from the coma was not easy either.
When she opened her eyes, she was suffering from hallucinations - and even started telling people that Phil Collins is a cousin.
She also thought the ceiling above her hospital bed was infested with wasps.
Claire has spent the past year recovering at home with Scott and their sons, but her memory has yet to return.
"I can identify myself in the photos but I have no memory of ever being there," she explained, adding that people often ask her if she can remember them.
She said her neurologist told her that by this time she should have been able to remember things by now - but the memories did not come.
"It really made me focus on the future and if I can not bring back memories, I will create new memories," she said.
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