Caters
A mother of three is slowing getting to know her family again after a 10 day coma wiped 13 years of her memory.
Sarah Thomson, 32, from Exeter spent 10 days in a coma after malformed blood vessel connections burst in her head last November.
The last thing she remembers before waking up in hospital is feeling something 'ping' at the back of her neck while sitting at her computer screen, and then being in an ambulance.
When she woke up, she believed she was 19, and had no idea who husband Chris, 34, and kids Michael, 14, Daniel, five, and Amy, four, were. In fact, she thought IT technician Chris, her partner of 10 years, was a hospital worker.
"When the children came to see me I just had no idea who they were, I thought they were somebody else's children," says Sarah.
I kept calling them the wrong names, and had no idea why they were so pleased to see me. Eventually I asked if they were mine, and when I was told I couldn't believe it. I was 19 when I had Michael, so I got very confused when they brought him to see me. I was expecting him to be my little baby.
Sarah thought it was 1998, and had no recollection of marrying Chris. She thought the Spice Girls were still together and Michael Jackson was still alive.
With Chris's help, Sarah has learned to love her family again, and is slowing remembering more and more about her life each day:
"I had no recollection of meeting him, or marrying him whatsoever. I had to fall in love with him all over again really. He took me to all the places we'd be too when we first got together to try and jog my memory.
"It's a bit weird when I wake up each morning and see a stranger lying next to me, but it all comes flooding back after a while.
He's been amazing really, helping me get myself together. I feel a bit like a teenager at the moment, I dye my hair all different colours and can get really moody at times, so he's certainly had to get used to the new me. But he's stuck by me through it all, he's just been amazing. Music triggers things, and Chris kept a diary when I was ill which helps.
"I remember more and more each day.
"I'm just enjoying being with my children and Chris, and taking each day as it comes. I watch videos and look at pictures to try and remember what I used to be like with them, but sometimes it's like watching a different person."
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