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MomBoard: E-ink display for a parent with amnesia

(jan.miksovsky.com)
2093 points pabs3 | 2 comments | 14 Nov 24 12:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.6s | source
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bregma ◴[14 Nov 24 15:55 UTC] No.42137465[source]▶
My wife acquired anterograde amnesia after a car accident. This device may or may not have worked for her: she would probably have discovered the device anew every time (as in, every 10 minutes or so), although she would probably be pleased each time.

Thankfully she fully recovered after a few weeks. It takes a lot of patience to deal with someone like that, and you could tell it frequently caused a lot of frustration on her part. Every 10 minutes or so in fact.

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1. edarchis ◴[15 Nov 24 09:43 UTC] No.42145338[source]▶
That illustrates the difference between anterograde amnesia and dementia. Dementia is a general degradation of the brain that includes memory but you can have amnesia with an otherwise perfectly functional brain. A patient with dementia would never text her kids as in OP's case.

Glad that your wife got over it.

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2. magicalhippo ◴[15 Nov 24 17:08 UTC] No.42148737[source]▶
My grandpa had dementia. Last time me and my mom flew over to visit he didn't recognize either of us the first day. He didn't even remember having a daughter. Second day he vaguely recognized my mom but not me.

Third and last day of our stay, as soon as I entered the living room he lit up and exclaimed my name. We sat and talked for hours, reminiscing past events with great details, until we had to leave for the plane home.