Mom Wakes Up Confused As She Loses 20-Years Of Memory After Catching Cold From Son

Claire Muffett-Reece, 43, reveals her story of how she went to bed one night in 2021 thinking she had a slight cold but ended up going into a coma for 16 days and after waking up she had lost 20 years of memories.

Credit: Channel 4

Speaking on Steph's Packed Lunch to mark World Encephalitis Day today (22 February), Claire joined the show with her husband Scott, 44 to talk about the horrible experience.

By sharing her experience, Claire hopes that others will be able to look out for the signs that she missed.

Scott recalled: "Claire, for around about two weeks, had been suffering from a cold that she picked up from our youngest, Max. Just gradually deteriorating, getting worse and worse, and getting more and more lethargic. 

Credit: Channel 4

“And then she went to bed the night before Father's Day, and in the morning, I couldn't wake her up.

“She then had a rush to hospital, where she started seizing. And then they put her on a ventilator, where she stayed on for a week before she was then transferred to Royal London Hospital, where the condition was diagnosed from there.” 

Doctors initially assumed that Claire had bleeding in her brain, but her medical reports ruled that out.

It turned out she actually had encephalitis, an uncommon and serious condition in which brain becomes inflamed, which can be life threatening without urgent treatment.

Credit: Channel 4

She came around two weeks later, soon realizing that her memory had gone. 

Claire, from Braintree in Essex, said: “I wasn't in the best space, I was hallucinating, quite delusional at that stage - which is quite normal if you've been on a ventilator. 

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“I mean, you’ve got to laugh about it now but I told anyone that would listen that Phil Collins was my cousin... Obviously he isn’t.” 

Claire added: “I thought there was wasps in the ceiling or flies were getting in my ears. It was quite strange.” 

Claire shares that though she could remember some of her family member's faces, but important life events had completely wiped out from her memory.

Credit: Channel 4

“I can't remember how he proposed, getting married, falling pregnant, having the birth of my children, any holidays with friends or anything like that,” she said. 

“It's kind of all or gone. 

“Same with events like 9/11. Scott had to tell me we had this Covid lockdown - luckily, I forgot all about homeschooling! I don't think I would have enjoyed that. But yeah, it's all gone.” 

Credit: Instagram/Claire Muffett-Reece

She added: “It's horrible, I'm not gonna lie. I mean, you get people constantly saying to you, ‘Do you remember when...?’ 

“And I think now people remember not to say that to me, because it's sad. I can see that it was me in the photo, but I don't remember being there.” 

Claire has been told by her doctors that by this time she should have gotten her memory back, but sometimes she’ll ‘get a little ping’ and remember something. 

She continued: “My short term memory is very scatty. I'm constantly relying on lists. 

“I get very strange symptoms, like my senses will all go into override. I remember when I first got out of hospital we used to joke that I could be a sniffer dog in Calais, because I could literally smell my medicine from the other side of the room. 

Credit: Instagram/Claire Muffett-Reece

"But apart from that, yeah, it's just odd bits and pieces.” 

Claire has resumed her life as a journalist again but has to rely on her husband to drive as she can't take her car.

As per the NHS, encephalitis sometimes starts off with ‘flu-like symptoms’ such as a high temperature and a headache. 

Other serious symptoms then come on over ‘hours, days or week’, including confusion or disorientation, seizure or fits, changes in personality and behaviour, difficulty speaking, weakness or loss of movement in some parts of the body and loss of consciousness. 

Credit: Instagram/Claire Muffett-Reece