Brit crash victim wakes up every morning thinking it’s 1994
By ANIFriday, June 11, 2010
LONDON - A British woman, who suffered head injuries in two road crashes, has been waking up every morning for the past 16 years thinking it’s the year 1994.
Michelle Philpots, who has no short-term memories since 1994, can’t even recollect what she has done the previous day, which is a scene right out of movie ‘Groundhog Day’.
Using post-it notes to keep herself on track, she would often leave her house and then forget where she was going, and when she does arrives at her destination, she has no idea what she went there for.
“I can really relate to the film Groundhog Day. It’s like I am living the same day, day after day,” the Daily Express quoted her as saying on June 10.
“I love to watch EastEnders but if I’m reading the magazines showing what happens in upcoming episodes, I have no idea what is going on. I can’t remember the characters or any storylines - I just know I like it,” she stated.
She jokes that the only benefit is that if she has seen a TV show before, it never feels like a repeat and she finds the jokes funny all over again.
Her husband Ian, 46, a fencer, has to constantly remind her that they are married, and he has to show her photographs of their wedding day in 1997.
“The only thing I can do is be patient. I get frustrated but I keep calm because I love her. I am lucky we met before she had the accidents because it means she can remember me,” he said.
She rarely leaves her hometown of Spalding, Lincolnshire, and uses sat-nav to go to the shops half a mile away.
Michelle, who volunteers at her local disabled charity, was diagnosed with epilepsy 16 years ago, triggered by brain injuries she suffered in a motorbike crash in 1985, then compounded by a car accident in 1990.
It came to light when at work one day she repeatedly photocopied the same document all day.
To prevent seizures she had surgery to have brain cells removed at London’s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in 2005.
“I know I can’t have my old life back but sometimes my house becomes my prison,” she added. (ANI)
