How Wright went wrong
Wright, a star athlete and student at Libby High School, talks about his unusual case of amnesia while his parents, Wade and Corrine, listen. Wright did not recognize his parents or many of his friends at school following a Jan. 6 incident. Karen Nichols photos/Daily Inter Lake
Seth Wright, right, spars with his friend and fellow wrestler Kyle Sweedman during a Tuesday practice at Libby High School. The pair have been wrestling together since grade school, but when Wright was suddenly struck with a severe bout of anmesia last month, he did not recognize Sweedman or his coaches. Sweedman is wearing a full face mask to protect his nose, which was crushed during the divisional championship match last week. Wright wrestles at 171 pounds and Sweedman is at 152. Both are competing at the state tournament in Billings this weekend. Karen Nichols photos/Daily Inter Lake
Wrestler's world turned upside down by memory lossLIBBY- Imagine this.
You get a call from your son's school that something has happened. They're not sure exactly what, but his dad and uncle have taken him to the local emergency room.
You race to the hospital, burst through the doors … and your boy is sitting on a table in the emergency room.
He looks healthy, but "just absolutely blank," said Corinne Wright.
"When I went in, he was sitting on the emergency room table. He was staring at me … just blank," she said. "We could tell he didn't recognize us."
That's what happened to Libby's Wright family on Jan. 6.
Seth Wright, a senior at Libby High School, had been getting ready for wrestling practice when he was suddenly stricken with amnesia.
No one knows exactly what happened.
The only clue is he had been walking on his hands, warming up before practice. He had been going for the record, up and down the length of the Libby wrestling room, but appeared to be fine when practice started.
The first work item was takedowns.
But instead of single legs, Seth grabbed workout partner Kyle Sweedman by the head and threw him on the ground.
When Sweedman got up, Seth did it again.
When the coaches got to him moments later, Seth's eyes were dilated and he was talking about being late for calculus.
"The last thing I remember, the tag on my locker says 'Leften.' [A joke on his last name.] That's the last thing I remember seeing. I didnt even know my own name," Seth said.
Since then, he's seen a number of doctors - two in the emergency room, two neurologists and one psychologist.
What they've learned is that Seth's IQ is amazingly high.
But they have no idea why he can't remember.
The theory is that by walking on his hands, as much as he did, he may have cut off the blood supply to his brain. But that's only a theory.
What he does and doesn't know are pretty interesting.
"It's affecting so many different parts of the brain it's just baffling," Corinne said.
"At first, we thought it was mostly just people (that he had lost)," said Wade Wright, Seth's dad.
He has no memory of any of his friends, his teachers, kids he's met through sports, famous people …. or his family.
When Wade arrived with Seth's uncle to pick Seth up from school that day, he wouldn't go with them. He didn't know them.
"He didn't want to get in the truck very bad at all," Wade said.
And now Seth says, "Anything I did with people is gone. The memories I do have are just kind of shadows, which is weird. But at least I have them."
That first night, when the Wrights brought Seth home, he looked around at the family pictures on the walls.
"I know you guys must love me," he told his mom. "But I just don't know who you are."
That cut right to his mother's heart.
"It's been very hard. I wouldn't wish this on anybody… to have their kid not know them," Corinne said.
"We're a very close family. It almost feels like somebody died, but the person is there every day," she said.
"It has been tough on my wife. It's been hard on her," Wade said.
Seth is senior class president, he's a state placer in wrestling, an all-conference cross country runner and football player and a state champion triple jumper.
"His senior year… you have some plans. They're not going to be that way," Corinne said.
"Even his personality is a little bit different," his dad said.
Many of the things the couple thought they knew about their son have changed.
Before Jan. 6, Seth was very open with hugs and "I love yous."
"He's just now starting to do that again," Corinne said.
Their house has always been the gathering place. But when Seth had his birthday recently, he was ambivalent about inviting anyone over and had to be coaxed into the group.
Once one to go shirtless whenever possible, he's now become extremely modest.
"My parents said I'm shyer. I'm not. I've just got to get to know people," Seth said.
He can remember places, layouts of homes that he's visited, but he doesn't know who lives there.
He can read, he can still do calculus in his head, and he still plays "Guitar Hero" at the expert level. But he's never seen a movie or a cartoon before, and food has become a brand new adventure.
A question that has become familiar is, "Do I like that?"
"He knew what everything was, but he didn't know what it tasted like," Wade said.
His tastes have changed, too.
He used to love orange juice, drank nearly a gallon a day.
"I guess I drank a lot of it before, but it's not too good," Seth said.
Once a kid who would do whatever it took to avoid books, Seth has turned into a voracious reader.
Maybe that's because he's trying desperately to catch up. Seth stays up as late as 1 a.m. studying.
"He reads the encyclopedia every night. He has a bookmark in the dictionary," Corinne said.
He reads every day during lunch.
"I'm pretty good on [history] stuff now. I looked up all the presidents on the computer. I looked up Cleopatra last night," he said.
Going back to school was hard at first.
"A lot of people didn't talk to me. I had to kind of re-meet everybody. Now, it's like a new school and everybody is friendly," he laughed.
One other thing that's changed?
Seth no longer cares for wrestling.
"Are you sure I liked this?" he's asked his dad.
He is back on the mat, although he's had to relearn pretty much everything.
"They've been going over a lot … shooting, cradles. The first few matches, he went out there and fumbled around," Wade said.
The first thing to trip him up were the green and red ankle bracelets each wrestler puts on prior to each match.
He didn't know what to do with them.
The rules and scoring are still frustrating for him.
"He doesn't remember any of it," Wade said.
His attitude now is, It's "almost over," he said.
"It's not fun to me. I don't know. I don't get excited about it. It's not interesting to me," he said.
His prognosis? As unknown as what caused the amnesia.
He is healthy and he has gotten some memories back.
Every test he's had has shown him to be completely normal.
But the longer he goes without remembering, the less chance there is he will get it all back.
"Physically, I'm fine. Mentally, I'm fine too. I'm just starting over. I clicked the reset button," he smiled.