Hollywood Comedy Becomes Frightening Reality

Sony Pictures’ 50 First Dates is a romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. Barrymore’s character, Lucy, has short term memory loss due to a brain injury she sustained in a car accident. She loses her memory every single night and can’t remember anything that has happened since her accident. It’s supposed to be a funny movie… but what would happen if this Hollywood comedy were to become your frightening reality?

Joleen was an active, healthy, 30 year old mother of four, including a four month old baby. However, due to an incorrect combination of medications she received in a hospital emergency room she suffered hypoxia and her blood oxygen level plummeted to 23%. She turned blue and became unresponsive. Doctors rushed to revive her.

When she awoke it became apparent that she had suffered an injury to her brain due to a lack of oxygen. She had completely lost her short term memory. Every five minutes her brain would recycle and she would have no memory of where she was or why she was there. People were unfamiliar. She felt as if a fog had descended on her and she couldn’t find her way out. It was a hopeless, terrifying experience.

After four long, frustrating days she was released from the hospital. Her family was told there was nothing more that could be done for her. They would simply need to wait and see if her memory would ever come back.

Thankfully, Joleen’s husband, Juan, wasn’t in a waiting mood and he immediately began calling for help. Their family doctor told them about Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and advised them to take Joleen to Sara’s Garden as soon as possible. That’s all Juan needed to hear. That afternoon they were on their way to Wauseon for treatments.

When they arrived, Joleen was vacant, distant and totally unsure of her situation. She was scared, confused and could not engage anyone in conversation. Juan cried as he recounted their last five days. Joleen asked him why he was crying and if she had done anything wrong. Later she commented that she felt as if “None of the parts of my brain were touching each other.”

By the end of her first treatment she looked at her attending nurse and said she felt as if a fog was lifting off of her mind. She began remembering things. Juan was amazed at the change he was seeing take place in his wife right before his eyes as he watched and listened to her on the monitors.

Five days and eight treatments later, Joleen is a completely different person than she was when she first walked through our doors… physically, intellectually and emotionally. She is now alert and able to focus on her surroundings. She is able to carry on a conversation fluidly without pausing and struggling to consider every single answer or comment. She is able to smile… and laugh… and joke with people she comes in contact with.

Thanks to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy at Sara’s Garden, Joleen has her life back… and her family has their wife and mother back.

There is hope… for this and many other conditions. HBOT is treatment without drugs… without surgery… without pain.