Shine OnViral video of man who doesn’t remember wife post-surgery may be a hoax
Over the past week, the internet has been abuzz about a video posted to YouTube by a man named Jason Mortensen, which shows him waking from anaesthetics following hernia surgery. He appears dazed and confused and does not remember his wife of six years, calling her "smoking hot" while suggesting he is one lucky guy to be married to her.
We reported on the video on Tuesday, which as of Wednesday had over six million views. The video was covered by numerous media organizations, none of which could verify its authenticity.
And now it has come to light that it may, indeed, be a hoax.
Questions have been raised about whether Mortensen is an actor and why a woman would have a camera rolling as her husband wakes from surgery, not to mention why his surgery gown has paws prints on it. But aside from these legitimate lines of questioning, one issue in particular stands out.
As noted by Slate writer Emma Roller, who spoke with memory impairment specialist Dr. Larry Squire from the University of California-San Diego, there are only two types of amnesia, neither of which are accurately portrayed in the video.
The first type, psychogenic amnesia, is caused by physical trauma and tends to wipe out memory of events prior to the traumatic impact, but has no relation to surgery. While the second type of amnesia is the result of oxygen loss during surgery, symptoms are more related to an inability to remember new information, and would not likely cause a patient to forget their own wife.
"It would not affect something so salient in a person's life," Squire told Slate.
In response to criticism, the Mortensens are refuting all claims that their video was faked.
"... I can understand all the skepticism but I talked to my doctor yesterday and he said he's gotten like 150 phone calls (about it), so I finally gave him permission to tell them (reporters) that I had the surgery," Jason Mortensen told The Today Show.
"He genuinely didn't remember a thing about that when I showed him the video," added his wife, Candice.
But who can blame us for being skeptical, with this viral video just on the heels of Jimmy Kimmel's elaborate video hoax involving a woman catching on fire while twerking?
Is the Mortensens' video a hoax? Tell us your verdict in the comments below!
