In June 2019, 16-year-old Riley Horner from Illinois was accidentally kicked in the head by a crowd-surfer at a school FFA convention. The traumatic brain injury (TBI) triggered dozens of seizures and a severe case of anterograde amnesia
For about six months, her brain effectively “reset” roughly every two hours. Every morning, she woke up completely disoriented, genuinely believing it was still June 11, 2019. To survive daily life, she had to constantly check thousands of logs in her phone’s Notes app just to know who had died, where she was, and what had happened to her. Early medical scans showed no tumors or brain bleeds, leaving local doctors entirely baffled and leading some to wrongfully suspect she was faking it.
Riley’s life changed dramatically after seeking specialized treatment, and she is thriving today:
- The Medical Breakthrough: Riley’s family eventually tracked down Cognitive FX, a specialized post-concussion treatment center in Provo, Utah. Using intensive, targeted neurocognitive rehabilitation therapy, specialists helped her brain figure out how to transfer short-term memories into long-term storage again. Within her first few weeks of treatment, she began retaining information past the two-hour mark.
- Graduating Nursing School: Defying all odds, Riley went on to attend Bradley University. In June 2025, she officially graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and passed her licensing exams to become a Registered Nurse (RN).
- Working in the Emergency Room: Today, she works full-time in a hospital Emergency Department—the very same high-stakes medical environment she spent so much time in as a patient.
- Her Current Memory Status: While Riley has largely recovered her day-to-day short-term memory capabilities, she still has permanent amnesia for the blank period between June and December 2019. Her memory from late 2020 through 2021 remains slightly “hit or miss,” but it no longer hinders her daily life or medical career. She continues to manage occasional seizures with medication, but she remains active, even celebrating her recovery milestones by hiking and biking through places like Zion National Park.
