Woman is living the real life '50 First Dates' as she forgets her boyfriend after memory loss

Falling in love with the same person after suffering through memory loss sounds like a great plot for a romantic movie. However, for this mother, she lived through this in real life and she is "grateful" to be alive after going through that. Nesh Pillay, 32, was involved in an automobile accident in South Africa when she was nine years old, incurring a head injury that resulted in frequent concussions, per Tyla.

Although the injuries were repaired by a plastic surgeon, she discovered over the years that any hit to the head often results in concussion - including last October, when a blow left her forgetting she not only had a partner but also had a six-year-old kid. "At the time, not a lot was known about traumatic brain injuries. But over the years, I've had quite a few concussions and as time goes on, it takes less and less of a bump for you to get a concussion – and every time, my symptoms are worse and worse," she said.

Pillay, a former journalist, claimed the bump last year caught her and her family off guard and that she told people she had hit her head but couldn't recall what occurred. She said, "My neurologist thinks I probably had some sort of minor bump and that I may have had some seizures following that. She started feeling uncomfortable and decided to take a nap, but woke up 'very confused.' She added, "Then over the course of a couple of hours, I lost my memory. By that evening, I didn't know who my partner was, I didn't know much about my daughter. That's so difficult."

She claimed she was in a continual state of 'panic,' confessing she doesn't recall the two months that followed. Her partner took time off work to be by her side. But she couldn't remember who he was, mistaking him for an Uber driver at one point, with a TikTok video showing the moment he convinced her he was her boyfriend, only for Pillay to stress out over what her mother would think. Pillay also has a daughter from a previous marriage who was first kept apart from her. 

"It was interesting because while I didn't always remember how to be a parent to her, so many of the emotions were still there. I always felt very protective of her and I knew I loved her," she said. Pillay now uses TikTok to discuss her path toward "healing her brain" and spread awareness of her ailment. Social media users have compared her narrative to a "real-life 50 First Dates" in reference to the Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler film, while others have compared it to 2012's movie "The Vow."

Pillay said, "I didn't expect the reaction. When these things are happening to you, you don't think of them as a big deal. You're not making connections to the movies." Her memory loss may be due to her concussions, one hospital told her, adding that she will be "fine in a couple of days." Doctors are still uncertain of what is causing it. She said, "Women, in general, are not believed when it comes to their symptoms. Women of color are especially not believed. The doctor was hellbent on tying it to a psychiatric issue. I was there for three days and saw a medical doctor for maybe 15 minutes."

After being evaluated by five psychiatrists who concluded that Pillay's problem was not psychiatric, she ultimately saw a neurologist. She said, "He said the thing that I think a lot of doctors are afraid to say, which is, 'I don't know.' It was nice to hear that because at least I wasn't being gaslit." She added, "I'm so grateful to be alive. So many people die from head injuries and don't get any memory back. So I'm just really looking at the bright side here."