Total recall: Chinese wife nurses stroke-stricken husband back from the brink using the power of love

Tang Huaxiang’s memory was wiped by a massive stroke which also left him unable to talk and walk

He could only remember his wife and she used their love for each other to get him back on his feet

Reading Time:2 minutes

A man who had a stroke forgot everything, except for his wife. Photo: SCMP Composite

Published: 6:00pm, 18 Jun 2022Updated: 12:30pm, 20 Jun 2022

Earlier this year, 67-year-old Tang Huaxiang suffered a stroke which wiped his mind clean of everything except the memory of his beloved wife Wei Shenlian.

Wei, who is two years her husband’s junior, remembers the terrible moment on February 18, like it was yesterday: “It was late at night, he suddenly had a stroke, causing him to forget everything, even his own name. I was then the only one he recognised.”

Tang spent about 40 days in hospital in Liuyang City, Hunan province in southern China. The stroke had caused damage to his brain so severe that his level of intelligence was reduced to that of a two-year-old.

According to the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald, a city daily with the largest circulation in Hunan province, the episode had also left him unable to speak or walk.

Wei Shenlian is reteaching her husband Tang Huaxiang how to read. Photo: Weibo

To help her husband recover, Wei created a small handwritten manual to teach him some basic Chinese characters and numbers, and gradually managed to teach him to recognise some words and speak a little.