Couric said she still does not know what triggered the episode, speculating that factors such as altitude, dehydration, stress or lack of sleep may have played a role.
Katie Couric revealed on her Substack that she suffered a bout of transient global amnesia, an exceedingly rare condition that temporarily wipes a person's memory while they remain self-aware.
The former Today Show host revealed the episode in a July 6 essay on her Substack titled "The Day I'll Never Remember." Couric, 69, recounted getting some fruit and coffee from a farmers market in Aspen before arriving home, eating the fruit and having a bowl of cereal. She then recalled her husband, John Molner, driving her to a festival in town later that day. She spoke on several panels that afternoon, although she admitted she has no memory of what she said. Molner, who has been married to Couric for more than a decade, wrote that while he noticed nothing unusual about her performance, he thought she looked "weak and dizzy" after the event was over.
"She knew who I was and could answer a few other basic questions," Molner wrote in the Substack.
Couric said she initially feared something more serious had happened, and doctors treated the episode as a possible stroke before ruling it out. After an MRI showed no evidence of a stroke, doctors diagnosed her with transient global amnesia, a rare neurological event that causes sudden, temporary memory loss while leaving other cognitive abilities intact.
Couric said she still does not know what triggered the episode, speculating that factors such as altitude, dehydration, stress or lack of sleep may have played a role. She noted that doctors told her the condition is typically temporary and, in most cases, happens only once.
The former television anchor said the experience was frightening but expressed relief that it was not something more serious. She said the several hours she lost during the episode are a period of her life she will never remember, but she is grateful for her recovery.
According to the National Institutes of Health, the condition affects between 3.4 and 10.4 people per 100,000 each year. However, for people over 50, the rate is significantly higher.
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