A father-of-three ended up losing his memory overnight and woke up without any idea who his wife or kids were.
Adam Gonzales, from Gilbert, Arizona, found that he couldn’t remember anything from the last five years.
His condition baffled doctors after all the memories of his wife Raquel and their three children were erased.
Adam and Raquel Gonzales had been together for five years when he woke up one morning with no idea who she was – he had lost all memory of marrying her
Raquel reassured him that he was in his home, she was his wife and they had three children together. However, Adam couldn’t remember anything of the last five years at all
In 2001, Adam spent a year in hospital, learning how to walk and talk again after being choked by an ex-girlfriend. His heart stopped three times and his memory loss stems from this incident
But then almost as suddenly as he lost them, he regained several years worth of memories some three months later.
Adam, 40, and Raquel met in December of 2012. They fell in love and got married in July 2015.
It wasn’t until one morning in September 2016 that Raquel walked into their living room to find her husband looking perplexed. He seemed to have no idea who she was.
‘I asked him: ‘Do you know where you are? Do you know what year this is? Do you know what my name is?’
‘And he said ‘No’ to all these things,’ Raquel said to the BBC.
In 2012, Adam and Raquel began dating. They married in a little chapel outside Phoenix in 2015, but all memory of them being together was wiped out that morning in September 2016
Whil Adam was in hospital undergoing tests, he called the one person he knew he could trust – his mother. She reassured him that he had been in love with and married to Raquel
She tried to reassure him and explained that she was his wife and had three children together. Adam burst into tears.
Raquel decided that she needed to get him to a hospital quickly and instructed him to get dressed.
As Adam went to find his clothes he asked where his suits were. Raquel explained that he didn’t have any because he was a personal trainer.
Adam ended up following the woman he believed was a complete stranger to hospital where he began a series of tests. MRIs, CAT scans and echocardiograms were all performed but doctors could not work out what happened.
Almost as suddenly as they disappeared, three months later some memories returned in December 2016.
Adam tried to take his daughter to school one day but didn’t knows what school she went to. After dropping her, he asked her to their home address into the GPS so he wouldn’t get lost
When Adam woke up he was able to remember who Raquel was again before apologizing for something that had happened three years earlier when they were dating.
Bizarrely the memories that returned were those from earlier in the couple’s relationship – and from when their children were younger, Raquel said.
She said at one point he went see if his daughter was ready for school and she was much older than he remembered.
He had to be directed to his children’s school before he asked his daughter to put their home address into the GPS so he wouldn’t get lost.
Although Adam is slowly recovering memories there are still three years that are missing, including some important milestones, such as his wedding to Raquel.
Adam has now recovered many memories but three years are still missing, including some important milestones, such as his wedding to Raquel
On their GoFundMe page they wrote: ‘Adam is now home, with his wife and family, but has no recollection of years 2012-2016.
It includes his wedding day, daddy-daughter dances, vacations, baptisms, and other key events, along with his career as a personal trainer.
Adam and Raquel are beginning to date and rebuild their ‘new’ lives together but the road ahead will be long and full of challenges for the whole family, which includes three amazing teenagers.
The memory loss wasn’t the first time Adam had lost several years of his life.
After the break-up of his first marriage, he started a new relationship which became abusive. His girlfriend strangled him with an electric cord and left him for dead in his garage.
As he was rushed to hospital Adam’s heart stopped threes times and he then spent four months in a coma.
At the time of the incident in 2011 he had been a branch manager for telecoms giant AT&T and a devoted church leader in Lubbock, Texas.
Raquel is preparing for any future episodes of amnesia by carefully documenting the family’s milestones.
But he couldn’t remember any of that life whatsoever.
Adam told The BBC he didn’t remember who his two children were from his previous marriage and had no idea he had even been married and then divorced.
He spent a year in hospital learning to walk and talk again and it was a few months before he was introduced to his son and daughter again.
‘How could a father, a dad, forget his biological children?’ he said.
He decided not to go back to his old job over fear of not being able to ‘live up to this person’ that he didn’t even know.
Adam decided to get away from it all and moved to Phoenix, Arizona, with his children, and became a personal trainer.
That was where he met Raquel in 2012 and after a few months of dating Raquel and her daughter and Adam and his son and daughter moved in together.
But their lives dramatically changed in September two years ago when he forgot who Raquel and their kids were.
The doctors gave Adam every test they could – MRIs, CAT scans, echocardiograms – but they could not figure out what caused this second memory loss
The couple are now looking to the future. Two of their three children have left for college, so they’re planning a second honeymoon
Abby was 12, Lulu was 15 and Elijah was 17 when Adam’s second memory loss occurred in 2016.
Although Adam was wary of Raquel at first he put his trust in his own mother who assured him ‘She loves you. You have my blessing.’
They started dating and getting to know each other again in hospital, meeting in secluded corners and chatting over grilled-cheese sandwiches at the cafeteria.
She said: ‘In the hospital, Adam would turn to me saying: ‘If you’re my wife, I think we can kiss.
‘This is still the husband I married – he is always trying to get a free kiss. Adam’s always been a flirt and continues to be a flirt.
‘Those were little rays of hope saying: ‘This is still the man that you married – he just can’t remember what year.’
And as Adam regains memories slowly and they work on their relationship Raquel has remained positive, adding: ‘My whole life completely changed and it was a beautiful disaster.’