Amnesia Al Identified but...

Maybe his family hates him.

Or maybe amnesia is a congenital disease with them and they don't remember he's missing!

It's still an unfamiliar life for man with amnesia

By Curt Woodward
Associated Press
Published November 3, 2006


LACEY, Wash. -- He has flipped through the photos, listened to the stories, read through all the letters. But more than a month after he left his home in Washington and woke up in Denver with no memory, Jeff Ingram still has no idea who he is.

"Family vacations, high school graduation . . . your first dance, your first kiss. That's all lost," Ingram said.

"It's probably the most frustrating thing that a person can ever go through, is to lose their identity," he said.

What Ingram remembers is waking up in Denver on Sept. 10. He had no idea who or where he was, and had nothing but $8 and the clothes he was wearing.

Doctors determined the memory loss came from a disorder called dissociative fugue, a rare type of amnesia that can be triggered by stress.

A televised plea--"If anybody recognizes me, knows who I am, please let somebody know"--led to a reunion with his fiance, Penny Hansen.

Ingram, a 40-year-old former millworker, and Hansen, a state government worker, sat hand-in-hand Wednesday as they thanked those who helped bring Ingram home.

"Jeff and I are here to tell you that faith, love and hope are alive and well through this story," Hansen said.

According to his relatives, Ingram suffered a similar memory loss in 1995, when he vanished for about nine months.

Ingram said Thursday his friends tell him he's pretty much the same guy he was before he disappeared, though a few things have changed. Food is one thing. He told ABC's "Good Morning America" Thursday he's been told he didn't like green peppers or coconuts before, but he likes them now.