Teenage Girl's Memory Gets Wiped Out by Life-Saving Treatment
In the 2004 movie "50 First Dates," actress Drew Barrymore played the character of Lucy Whitmore who had a rare type of amnesia that prevented her from creating new memories. She only recalled moments before the accident that caused the amnesia but not the events after that.
Such is the condition a 17-year-old British girl is going through after undergoing a treatment to shrink a tumor in her brain. Charlotte Reid of Sidmouth, Devon now forgets basic things and doesn't look forward to anything in life because she doesn't remember they are going to happen.
Charlotte's ordeal began at age three when she started experiencing regular headaches. She visited the doctor constantly since, but her condition worsened as she grew up that she began having trouble with her sight. "I was worried about it because [the headaches] would last for weeks at a time. As she got older they got more and more frequent," her mother Angie, 50, said.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
On July 2015, the girl's biopsy revealed that she had craniopharyngioma caused by a 3-centimeter tumor in her brain which created pressure on the optic tract and pituitary gland. This caused hormonal imbalances that resulted to obesity, impaired vision and delayed development. This is why Charlotte stopped growing and didn't go through puberty.
Treatment options were presented until the family opted for proton beam therapy which was the safest as it targeted only the tumor and spared the surrounding tissues. The treatment didn't eradicate the tumor but only reduced its size and stopped its growth. They spent nine weeks in Florida for the treatment.
"Initially she seemed to be okay, but by December 2015, she started to show signs of confusion and major fatigue," Angie related. "Her memory had been severely affected. She remembers everything before she had the treatment but everything since then is almost gone," she added.
Angie and her husband Steve, 47, use photographs, memory aids and writing notes to jog their daughter's memory. Charlotte's everyday life is detailed on her Facebook account. The family is also raising funds for Brain Tumor Research, and those who want to donate can do so at their JustGiving page.
