November 19, 2007

A scary memory - or lack thereof

I taught at Mount Healthy High School before coming to PHS and became good friends with Terry Kiger, phys ed teacher there. A couple of years after I left Mt Healthy, Terry's family went through a pretty scary ordeal when their daughter got injured playing soccer on PHS's football/soccer field. She hit her head and lost her memory of everything from birth until that moment - everything.

She didn't know who her family were. Her first trip to a buffet - a few days later - was a revelation because she didn't know what any of the foods were. She had lost her memory of everything from algebra to the family trip to Disney World.

Her memories have never come back, but she is doing well now. As a freshman at Slippery Rock University, Dana is starting on their soccer team and was featured in the following video story from CSTV.



Sorry, by the way, for the auto play on the embed. No option to not autoplay this time.

It often amazes me how very little we really understand about the brain.

5 comments:

achilles3 said...

wonderful story...never heard about that.
thanks

ucbpqitr

DanEcht said...

Amazing story...it's terrifying to even consider losing all my memories.

On a lighter note, thanks for the link from your blog to mine.

PHSChemGuy said...

I remember when Terry first told me about it. It was about five months after the accident happened. He was so casual about it because he was just thrilled that Dana was okay. I was - and am - impressed with how casually the whole family has taken things.

Admittedlly, I wasn't around in the immediate time after the accident and I'm guessing things might've been tense then, but it's an impressive/scary/amazing story.

And you're very much welcome, Dan...I'm happy to link to anything cool (and pretty clean), of course, the latter of which is why Lakes doesn't get the same treatment...

TL said...

To their great credit, it really is impressive how positive the family is. If it had to happen to anyone, I guess in a sad way, it's lucky to have happened to a family that could handle it so admirably well.

yyvmiel

PHSChemGuy said...

You do tend to meander that way, Mr Lakes, yes...

And, TL, I know the family well enough to echo that impression. They're really great folks.

wv - bknjiimd