Chapter 28

 

Chapter Twenty-Eight

 

Harold drove to the hospital while Pete tried to tell his father everything he had learned about amnesia in the first few weeks of his U.Va. Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Med Program. Harold was impressed. His son had obviously been paying attention.

              

Harold hadn’t understood a word. “Pete, your made a lot more sense to me when you were planning to be a lawyer.” Harold so the worried look on his son’s face and quickly added “Just trying to cut the tension, son. You made the right decision.” 

 

Pete had spent his under-graduate years at the University in pre-law. In his senior year he realized that he had chosen law to please his father. His mother had assured him that she and his father only wanted him to be happy. Now he was in a pre-med program and he planned to be a psychologist. He was happier than he could ever remember being. Or at least he was until yesterday.

 

When Harold and Pete got to the hospital they were met in the hallway by Fanny’s doctor. Harold found it hard to listen. He was disconcerted by the he sight of an armed police officer guarding the door of his wife’s room.

 

“She has obviously suffered a head injury. Two in fact. One to her left temple and one to other to the back of her head at the base of her skull. The amnesia may be related to a physical injury or it may have been caused by some other kind of trauma.”

 

“How can you tell which type it is, Doctor?” Unlike his father, Pete was totally focused on what the doctor was saying.

 

"Traumatic amnesia is generally due to a head injury. Traumatic amnesia is often transient. The extent of the period covered by the amnesia is related to the degree of injury and may give an indication of the prognosis for recovery. Mild trauma, such as a car accident that might result in no more than mild whiplash, might cause the the patient to have no memory of the moments just before the accident due to a brief interruption in the short/long-term memory transfer mechanism. Dissociative Amnesia results from a psychological cause as opposed to direct damage to the brain caused by head injury.  It can include an inability to recall information, usually about the stressful or traumatic events.  The memory is stored in long term memory, but access to it is impaired because of psychological defense mechanisms. Persons retain the capacity to learn new information and, in time, there may be some later partial or complete recovery of memory.”

 

 “Doctor, is it too soon for you to speculate of the cause of my mother’s amnesia?”

 

“It will take us some time to be certain, but based on what I have been able to observe of your mother’s state of mind, I believe she is suffering from Dissociative Amnesia resulting from a sever traumatic event.”

 

“Doctor, I’d like to see my wife now, if I may.”

 

He cautioned them both not to ask Fanny any questions about her recent experiences. “Just tell her who you are and let her know that you care about her.”

 

Harold took a deep breath and followed his son into the room.