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 Sam, as she is known, is white, about 50 years of age and speaks
French and English with a British or Australian accent, according to
police reports.
She was hospitalized after being found on a street near the beach in
Carlsbad, California, about 30 miles north of San Diego, on Feb. 1.
"The amnesia I have is called retro amnesia, and doctors have said
they have seen this before with the kind of antibodies from the
volleyball-sized tumor that was on my ovary," she wrote on her
Facebook page.
"I have been getting chemotherapy treatments, and have lost all of
my hair ... My prognosis is not good, and I pray my family will be
found soon."
She said she has dreams of New South Wales and Perth in Australia,
but also has flashes of memory of being in Hawaii.
Her story has been shared more than 72,000 times on Facebook, with
people from around the world picking up the thread and circulating
it to others.
She has also been interviewed on local television, her information
shared with the FBI and the international law enforcement agency
Interpol, whose missing person's bulletin for Sam shows a woman with
shoulder-length white hair propped up in a hospital bed facing the
camera. The FBI confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday that Sam's
Facebook page is authentic and that her story is credible.
[to top of second column] |
She has been moved from the hospital to an assisted-living center in
a neighboring city. Her story has been picked up by Australian news
media, and Sam told a local television affiliate of NBC that her
faith in God and her new community of friends are sustaining her.
"I'm hoping that someone sees me, or this (referring to the NBC
story), or something on the Internet, and my family immediately
says, 'There she is! There she is!'" she told the NBC affiliate
earlier this week.
(Editing by Steve Gorman and Sandra Maler)
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