Two women who suffered from the same common virus have revealed how it erased all their memories and left them unable to recognize their families.
Nicole Caird, from Brisbane, and Claire Robertson, from London, have told how their minds are wiped every few minutes by the after-effects of contracting a simple cold sore virus.
speaking to 60 minutes Australiawhich first aired in 2011 but recently resurfaced on social media, the women explained how large portions of their memories were erased after the cold sore virus attacked their brains and caused viral encephalitis.
Claire, who worked for 27 years as a nurse in the NHS, admitted she felt “excluded” from her own life and had “no sense of belonging.”
The mother-of-four revealed she felt like she had “crash-landed” into someone else’s life after waking up from a coma and not recognizing her children, husband or home.
In 2010, Nicole spent two and a half weeks in Europe skiing with her husband and two daughters when she contracted the virus.
She developed viral encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain, and in Nicole’s case The herpes simplex virus attacks directly. your brain tissue.
His memory loss is the result of injury to his brain, caused by the virus that damages nerve cells.
She now relies on her husband Brad to fill in the important gaps in her memory. She doesn’t remember getting married, giving birth, or anything about her children growing up.
The mother of two explained that she does not remember giving birth to her children and said: ‘I know that I have children and I I can imagine them, but again, I can’t display the day of the event.’
Nicole revealed that she wishes she could go back to the person she was and said that if she could have any memory, it would be of her children’s milestones.
On the other hand, Claire Robertson, from London, experienced the same memory loss as Nicole, when I was 43 years old and expired in a coma after suffering what she described as flu-like symptoms.
In 2004, she woke up in the hospital surrounded by her husband and four children and did not recognize any of them.
Nicole Caird, from Brisbane (pictured) and Claire Robertson, from London, revealed that a common virus erased all their memories, including not recognizing their own families, on 60 Minutes Australia.
Claire, (pictured), who worked for 27 years as a nurse in the NHS, admitted she felt “excluded” from her own life and had “no sense of belonging in it”.
Describing the moment he woke up, he told 60 Minutes Australia: “Complete confusion, I didn’t know where I was was, who was I.’
‘I was able to do and be a nurse, mom, friend, daughter and wife, was happily doing all these things, and all the loss of that, everything feeling of any sense of reality about I myself have been horrible.
Describing his departure from hospital after six weeks and his return home, he said it was like “a crash landing into someone else’s life.”
speaking to The Guardian She said: ‘I had no feeling of belonging to this family that I was told was mine. I remember feeling completely separated from this group of people who seemed so intense and confident together.
‘I didn’t recognize our house, so I couldn’t get my bearings. He even had to help me go to the right rooms.
‘I remember, in particular, not wanting to wear any of the clothes I was told belonged to me. I simply denied that they were mine.
Claire only remembered her husband of 20 years, Ed, because of a shark-tooth necklace he wore around his neck, andkept a book that lists all your friends with a description of how she met them simply in case they called there.
Nicole relies on her husband Brad (left) to fill in the important gaps in her memory. She doesn’t remember getting married, giving birth, or anything about her children growing up.
The mother-of-four wore a small camera around her neck, known as a sensory camera, which captured moments of her day and she watched them every night at home.
Claire said the device helped her unlock memories from the day, which she said had helped her “enormously”.
Speaking on 60 Minutes Australia, he said: ‘now I can visualize days and events that I have done, I have seen over and over again on the sensory chamber computer. The strong feeling is that of security, they are mine, my memories are mine, they belong to me and I have them.’
Claire said her condition seems to be improving because she is slowly starting to remember more and has “a sense of belonging” to her family again.
Viral infections, such as measles, chickenpox, and herpes, can trigger encephalitis. In rarer cases, the cause may also be a bacterial infection.
The condition affects only 4,000 Britons a year, according to the Brain & Spine Foundation.
The inflammation can affect one or several different areas of the brain and ranges from mild to severe. Early signs of the condition include flu-like symptoms such as fever and headache.
More serious symptoms develop over hours, days, or weeks, including confusion, seizures, personality changes, slurred speech, and loss of consciousness.
Studies suggest that while thousands of cases are reported worldwide each year, more may occur as symptoms may be mild or non-existent in most people.