<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-march-27-what-happened-on-this-day-clive-wearing-amnesia/506e8797-f9d2-428d-aaaa-999e7f9cf0d2#2" rel="" target="" title="Renowned UK classical musician Clive Wearing"><span>Renowned UK classical musician Clive Wearing</span></a><span> contracted a disease that gave him perhaps the most severe form of amnesia ever recorded on </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/today-in-history" rel="" target="" title="March 27, 1985"><span>March 27, 1985</span></a><span>.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Wearing contracted herpesviral </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/japanese-encephalitis" rel="" target="" title="encephalitis"><span>encephalitis</span></a><span>, a disease that attacked his central nervous system.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>His illness began with a headache and progressed to the severe swelling of the brain. Doctors gave him a one-in-five chance of survival.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-march-26--what-happened-on-this-day/7d7fd102-2c79-4b6d-ad94-4d3bc6935b76"><strong><span>Vulture waits in background of deeply confronting photo</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The disease wiped out most of his memory, but also left him unable to make new memories.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>As a result, Wearing now has the sensation of waking up from a coma every 20 seconds, even though he has been completely conscious.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Asked to keep a diary, Wearing would write repeated entries about being "completely awake for the first time".</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-march-27-what-happened-on-this-day-clive-wearing/056a20e2-031c-4431-b2e0-a14d8d34e601" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I wake for the first time," he wrote one day at 7.46am.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>At 8.07am he wrote: "I am totally, perfectly aware (1st time)."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Then 15 minutes later, he wrote "Now I am really completely awake (1st time)."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/today-in-history-march-25-what-happened-on-this-day-russell-crowe-kidnapping-plot/5a946053-24fd-48ff-90a0-78aebd7115a6"><strong><span>The al-Qaeda plot to kidnap Russell Crowe</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Though he did not remember that he had a diary, he would recognise his own handwriting, feeling confident to cross out previous entries.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But despite forgetting most of his early life, Wearing never lost his profound and deep love of his wife Deborah, whom he had married a year before his illness.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Wearing would forget about his wife the moment she left the room, but when she re-entered, he would greet her with joyful affection.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He would also commonly mistake people in public for the prime minister or the queen. Because in his mind he had never met anybody, he would assume every unfamiliar face was that of a very important person.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-march-1-what-happened-on-this-day-beatrice-nebraska-church-explosion/fd03639d-976f-430e-a62c-a05ba2954780"><strong><span>Everybody was running late when explosion destroyed church</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Wearing also never lost his musical ability, even though he does not remember pieces of music until he starts to play them.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He is still alive at 87 years old, though never recovered his memory.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-march-21-what-happened-on-this-day-collyer-brothers/d420209f-80bc-49c4-8745-b09ffc292bb8" rel="" target="" title="Brother starves to death after hoarder killed by own booby trap"><strong><span>Brother starves to death after hoarder killed by own booby trap</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/today-in-history" target="" title="For more from our Today in History archive, click here."><strong><span>For more from our Today in History archive, click here</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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