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Amnesia Major 
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TITLE |
Stranger in the Family (1991) (TV Film) |
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NOTES |
Based on a
true story the Thompson family. A teenager is in a |
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car
rear-ended. He looks in a state of shock but only has a bump
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on his head.
The ambulance called to the scene takes the driver |
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of the other
car to hospital and it is left to the parents to take him.
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Doctor says
he has mild concussion and adema (sic), slight |
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The family
take him home though he doesn't appear to be able to |
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He's taken
back to hospital and has a scan which shows a small |
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accummulation of fulid. Doctor says his not speaking could be
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He has
severe amnesia which means he needs teaching basic |
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skills like
eating, going to the toilet, dressing. |
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The status
of the driver at fault in the accident is glossed over with |
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the
suggestion they were not insured. this means there may be |
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problems
over paying for therapy. The mother appears to be an |
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artist and
the father an architect. |
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Mother is
obsessed that he will fall behind at school while the |
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school
suggests he can repeat a year. She gets a home-bound |
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teacher
though only on an interim basis. An assessor |
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recommends
admittance to a special education school. |
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The mother
is convinced that his memory loss will be short term |
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just as the
doctors had early on told her but now the parents are |
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told that
their son, Steve, won't get his memory back. The |
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accident has
caused tearing to deep parts of the brain. |
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Everything
has been erased -- personality, style as well as |
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memory. He
has severe retrograde amnesia. |
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But mum
knows best and doesn't want her son institutionalised. |
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She won't
accept anything the doctors tell her and shows Steve lots of home
videos in hope of stirring his memory. She is most
upset that he doesn't accept her, emotionally, as his mother and
this leads to her breaking down.
Then Steve goes missing and lives rough with other runaways.
There is the suggestion that his mother has caused this by trying
to impose the 'old' Steve's identity on him. This he rejects and
wants to be accepted as the 'new' Steve. The end caption tells
us that 18 months later he graduated from school.
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Notes
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