Mum wakes from coma ‘as a teenager’

YOU may wish you could be a teen again. But this 32-year-old mum woke from a coma with no memory of marriage or her children.

Sarah Thomson lost  her memories of marriage and 13 years of motherhood when an artery burst in her brain.

The 32-year-old went into a coma from which she awoke thinking she was 19.

The ten days she spent in intensive care last November had destroyed 13 years of her life, making her think it was still 1998.

She had no idea who husband Chris and children Michael, 14, Daniel, five, and four-year-old Amy were. She started to dye her hair all colours and, by her confession, act moodily like a teenager.

Mrs Thomson thought her favourite band the Spice Girls were together, had no memory of the Millennium and didn’t know Michael Jackson had died.

“When the children came to see me I just had no idea who they were, I thought they were somebody else’s,” said Mrs Thomson, who lives in Exeter. “I kept calling them the wrong names, and had no idea why they were so pleased to see me.

“I was 19 when I had Michael, so I got very confused when they brought him to me. He was so much older than I remembered, I was expecting him to be my little baby.

“When the rest of my family came to see me I took one look at my brother and said ‘You’re bald’. I told my parents how rough they looked too – it was like they’d aged overnight.”

For some time she thought her husband was a hospital worker.

“When I realised I’d be going home with him I was really confused – I thought I was still with my ex,” she said. “Luckily my mum explained who he was, but I had no recollection of meeting him.”

Mrs Thomson collapsed when a blood clot in her brain caused by malformed blood vessels started to trap spinal fluid.

“I remember looking at some pictures on the computer when I felt something ping at the back of my neck,” she said.

“I started feeling weird and seeing splodges in my vision. I took myself to bed and the last thing I remember was being in an ambulance.”

She said she had to fall in love with her husband, a 34-year-old IT worker, for a second time and he had helped by taking her to their old haunts.

“I told him I loved him for the first time at Christmas – it felt like I was saying it to him for the very first time. I had butterflies. I feel a bit like a teenager at the moment. I dye my hair all different colours and can get really moody. He’s had to get used to the new me! But he’s stuck by me through it all, he’s just been amazing.”