A grandmother sought help for a blinding headache. Then she lost 30 years of her memory

Five years later, she said none of her lost memories have returned

A grandmother who sought help for a blinding headache had 30 years of her memory wiped away.

The incident occurred five years ago to Kim Denicola. She’d gone to the hospital to treat a pain in her head and woke up believing she was a teenager in the 1980s. Doctors were unable to explain what had happened, despite conducting numerous tests and scans.

“It’s unbelievable to me as it probably is to other people,” Ms Denicola told WAFB, an NBC affiliate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “Never in my wildest dreams did I get up and go to bible study and think I’m going to wake up in the hospital and I’m going to be 60 years old.”

Ms Denicola said that none of her memories have been able to come back since that day she went to the hospital. “They told me, if by now I haven’t gotten it, then I probably won’t,” she told the outlet.

The grandmother has tried to use her journals, which she kept throughout her life, to trigger memories. She said reading them now feels like she’s learning about someone else’s life. She told the outlet that not all the memories are great.

“I’ve even gone through some of them and torn the pages out,” said Ms Denicola.

Still, she’s managed to maintain a positive outlook even though she admits on some days it feels like it would be easier to give up.

“I may have lost my memories, but guess what? We can make new ones,” she told the TV station, adding that she has enjoyed getting to know herself and her relatives, including her kids, grandkids and husband.

She celebrated the holidays by creating gift baskets for them. “I’ve lost a lot of Christmases, so it’s a big deal.”

She added: “You can’t be mad and bitter because the good Lord left me here for a reason. Whatever that may be, I’m sure he’ll let me know one way or another. And maybe this is it. Maybe it’s to tell people you don’t have to give up.”