Man Hits Head, Forgets Last 46 Years

Scott Bolzan studies pics to learn about his life
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 20, 2010 5:10 AM CDT

It sounds like a plot twist in a made-for-TV movie: A man slips, hits his head, and forgets everything. But it happened to Scott Bolzan. One year ago, the 47-year-old fell in the men's room at the jet management firm he ran and woke up blank. He didn't know his name, his friends or family, recognize actors or politicians, or remember that he once played football for the Patriots. "Someone pressed the delete button, and all my memory is gone," he tells ABC News. "Like a real bad computer crash."

To cope with his severe retrograde amnesia, which doctors determined occurred because he has no blood flow to his right temporal lobe, Bolzan is re-learning everything. He interviews his wife about their courtship, flips through a stack of photos daily, and studies things like the solar system. This year he celebrated his 'first' Halloween (he found the costumes strange) and ate his 'first' bite of Thanksgiving turkey. "The best word I can use to describe it is just being lost," he says. "Because I lost who I am."



(More amnesia stories.)

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