![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/im-a-mum-of-three-and-im-29/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/0_THP_CHP_310723Slug_0541JPG.jpg&description=Katrina O'Neill, then 29, had been playing baseball when she suddenly went into cardiac arrest - leaving her on the brink of death as she was starved of oxygen for a terrifying 22 minutes A mum woke from a three-week-long coma thinking she was a teenager again after she nearly died from cardiac arrest. Katrina O'Neill had been playing baseball when she suddenly went into cardiac arrest - leaving her on the brink of death as she was starved of oxygen for a terrifying 22 minutes. Her near-death experience saw her fall into a coma for three weeks at the age of 29. However, when she woke from the coma, Katrina, from Cambridge, Ontario Canada, found he brain reprogrammed to thinking she was aged just 15, claiming - experiencing childlike and adolescent thoughts of longing her her mum. Katrina said: "I didn't really recognize the people around me. I reverted back to being a child and just wanted my mom right there. Because that's what my brain was telling me — that I was just a child". Katrina said she had very little - to no - memory of what happened during her life from the age of 15 to her current age of 29. She explained to documentary maker Robert Gow how she felt confused because she had lost 13 years of memory. She also had trouble retaining information at first and had even forgotten the birth of three of her own children. Her story is now told in a new documentary called Losing Yourself, which is being shown on Accessible Media Inc., by Fredericton filmmaker Robert Gow. Cognitive neurologist Dr. Howard Chertkow and the senior scientist at Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Centre in Toronto, said a situation like Katrina's is rare, but it isn't unheard of, reports CBC News. Chertkow explained how a complex brain structure in the temporal lobe, called the hippocampus, plays a big role in memory and was likely affected by the lack of oxygen, adding: "Something special about the hippocampus is that it's very sensitive to lack of oxygen. Because when the brain sto){kind=link}
Katrina O’Neill, then 29, had been playing baseball when she suddenly went into cardiac arrest – leaving her on the brink of death as she was starved of oxygen for a terrifying 22 minutes
A mum woke from a three-week-long coma thinking she was a teenager again after she nearly died from cardiac arrest.
Katrina O’Neill had been playing baseball when she suddenly went into cardiac arrest – leaving her on the brink of death as she was starved of oxygen for a terrifying 22 minutes. Her near-death experience saw her fall into a coma for three weeks at the age of 29.
However, when she woke from the coma, Katrina, from Cambridge, Ontario Canada, found he brain reprogrammed to thinking she was aged just 15, claiming – experiencing childlike and adolescent thoughts of longing her her mum.
Katrina said: “I didn’t really recognize the people around me. I reverted back to being a child and just wanted my mom right there. Because that’s what my brain was telling me – that I was just a child”. Katrina said she had very little – to no – memory of what happened during her life from the age of 15 to her current age of 29.