What She Found (Tracy Crosswhite #9)(61)

“A physical injury can be head trauma but also such things as cerebrovascular accidents, or a stroke.”

“And it can result in complete memory loss?” Tracy asked.

“That depends on the extent and degree of the injury to the brain, or the severity of the psychological trauma. The degree and the length of memory loss can both be impacted. It may last hours, days, and in this instance, years.”

“If someone were struck in the head, that could cause the type of amnesia she is experiencing?”

“Absolutely. We’ve seen patients who have suffered car accidents, a fall from some height, been hit in the head with a metal rod, and suffered head trauma during a fight. Any head trauma that breaks the skull and meninges can cause serious brain injury and result in anterograde or retrograde amnesia.”

“And you said psychological trauma can also cause this?”

“By psychological trauma I mean traumatic events that are so distressful the mind prefers to forget them, instead of dealing with the stress caused.”

“Like giving birth,” Tracy said, smiling.

“I swore after my first child I’d never have a second,” Laghari agreed. “I have three.”

“I understand amnesia can cause a person to forget his or her past, but can it also cause her to forget who she is?” Tracy asked.

“It can. This is referred to as a fugue state. It is rare. It is even less common to last twenty-five years.”

“So, if this patient’s amnesia is legit, we’re looking most likely at a physical injury?”

“Most likely, yes, but not necessarily and not exclusively. Some people can also have a vulnerable brain.”

“What does that mean?”

“Maybe the person doesn’t have coping mechanisms and so, in a psychological crisis, the person just shuts down and essentially runs away and forgets.”

“What if the person is autistic? Would that impact the coping mechanism?”

“I don’t know of any clinical studies, but autism can be associated with difficulty making personal relationships, so I suppose it’s possible that such a person could be more vulnerable to an amnesiac episode.”

“Can the memories come back? Is there any treatment to bring them back?”

“Memories can come back, certainly. A person can forget what they were doing on a particular day, but if the memory is jogged, they can recall those events. But a person with retrograde amnesia usually can’t access the memory even if it is jogged. You take them back to their home, or their high school, and the experience is interesting, but it’s like they’re learning someone else’s life, not recalling their own.”

Tracy had that very thought when she presented Melissa Childs with the photographs of her past, that Childs was viewing someone else’s life.

“But this person, if she was intelligent, could she learn new things and remember them?” Tracy asked.

“No two cases of amnesia are the same but yes, generally, retrograde amnesia results in loss of declarative memory.”

“Which is what?”

“Declarative memory is memory related to facts such as how to spell a word, and episodes such as the events of a person’s daily life. Non-declarative memory is memories associated with skills and learning. It is acquired by practice, not by recollection.”

“Meaning a person could be taught to learn new things.”

“Yes.”

“And if a person was brilliant before their injury and picked up things quickly, they might still be able to do that after suffering retrograde amnesia?”

“The short answer is yes, though I’d like to ask her a number of questions and run my own tests.”

“Have you ever heard of a patient who suffered a physical injury that resulted in them speaking with an accent?”

This seemed to get the doctor’s attention. “Have I? No.”

“Is it possible?”

“You’re talking about acquired savant syndrome. That is, a person suffers a brain injury and acquires new skills or an ability they didn’t previously possess. Clinical studies exist of patients who couldn’t remember their name for longer than a minute but who could play concerts on the piano flawlessly. One clinical study discussed a young man who had never picked up the guitar, but after a traumatic brain injury, he played the instrument beautifully. Another study detailed how an injured child could sculpt lifelike sculptures without any training. Others become mathematical geniuses. So . . .

Could it happen?” Laghari shrugged. “Anything is possible, Detective.”





C H A P T E R 2 4

Tracy left Dr. Laghari’s office with a better sense of what had happened to Lisa Childress and, more importantly, that such things could occur. She was contemplating what to do, mentally juggling the number of different things she had going at the moment, when Rick Cerrabone called her cell phone. Work had a way of finding her. She didn’t have to look for it.

“You asked me to pull a file on Henderson Jones,” Cerrabone said.

“I thought you were preparing for trial and going to have your paralegal call me back.”

“My trial went away. Defendant took the plea.”

“Small miracle. Did he or his lawyer find religion?”

“Lawyer said his client was taking the plea against his advice . . . blah, blah, blah. They’re all tough guys when the fight is over.