A New Brunswick woman is the subject of a documentary chronicling her memory loss of the past 13 years after waking up from a coma that lasted three weeks.
Seven years ago, Katrina O’Neil was playing baseball in Cambridge, Ont., when she suffered a heart attack, missing oxygen for 22 minutes.
The woman, who was 29 at the time, fell into a coma for three weeks. When she woke up, she thought she was 15 years old.
I didn’t really recognize the people around me. I reverted to being a child and just wanted my mother to be with me. Because that’s what my brain told me I was just a kid, she explains.
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Katrina O’Neil couldn’t even remember the birth of her three children, who were at the time one, seven and ten years old.
Photo: Courtesy of Katrina O’Neil
Katrina O’Neil couldn’t even remember the birth of her three children, who were at the time one, seven and ten years old.
The majority of memories lost by Mrs. O’Neil remain missing today.
A documentary launched
The story of four-year Fredericton resident Katrina O’Neil is now the subject of a documentary. The 22 minute movie Losing Yourself was directed by Fredericton director Robert Gow, and is broadcast on the AMI-tv platform.
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Losing Yourself director Robert Gow.
Photo: Courtesy of Robert Gow
Robert Gow met Katrina O’Neil after moving to Fredericton two years ago. They were on the same sports team.
A few months after sharing her story to Mr. Gow during a night out at a bar, Ms. O’Neil was asked by the director if she was interested in going public.
I was amazed by this story, explains Robert Gow. I meditated on this for a few months. Then I said to myself that it could make a very good documentary. So we started from there.
Initially, Katrina O’Neil thought no one would care about her story. She was nonetheless excited, but also a little scared, to share her experience with the world.
A rare phenomenon, but not unheard of
Howard Chertkow, a cognitive neurologist and co-founder and director of the Jewish General Hospital and McGill University Memory Clinic, says a situation like Katrina O’Neil’s is rare, but not unheard of.
He even adds that he had a patient with an almost identical story.
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Neurologist Howard Chertkow explains that Katrina O’Neil’s hippocampus was most likely affected by a lack of oxygen.
Photo: Courtesy of Baycrest
The neurologist explains that the hippocampus, a complex cervical structure in the temporal lobe that plays a key role in memory, has most likely been affected by a lack of oxygen.
Something special about the hippocampus is that it is extremely sensitive to lack of oxygen.
Because when the brain stops getting oxygen, it becomes acidotic. This means that the pH level of the brain decreases.
It indicates that the hippocampus is very sensitive to acidosis. Cells break down, stop functioning and die within minutes.
Even when the hippocampus is damaged, the rest of the brain is still viable, he points out, which explains why Katrina O’Neil didn’t lose certain things, like procedural memory, sensations and movements.
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Robert Gow met Katrina O’Neil after moving to Fredericton two years ago. They were on the same sports team.
Photo: Courtesy of Robert Gow
A reality still difficult today
Ms O’Neil says parts of her memory have returned, but most of what she knows comes from stories told by those close to her.
During her recovery, Mrs. O’Neil’s mother and aunt took care of her children. When she was ready to take responsibility for her children again, Mrs. O’Neil found the experience both frustrating and overwhelming.
Everyone was throwing all their responsibilities at me, but I still didn’t know how to handle it. I am very lucky that my children are patient with me, that they work with me, that they understand that things are not like before.
For them, the most important thing is to be with their mother.
According to her, one of the most difficult moments of filming the documentary was looking at images from the past.
I wanted so badly to remember why my children were so happy in his pictures, says Ms. O’Neil.
Seven years later, it is still difficult for her to talk about it, especially in depth, with loved ones.
I never really know what to say. I feel lost. Sometimes it seems like some people are looking for answers, but I just don’t know what to answer them, because I don’t know.
Based on a text by Hannah Rudderham, CBC News
2023-07-31 08:18:42
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