Katie Couric Thought She Suffered a Stroke. Then She Was Diagnosed With Temporary Amnesia

Two weeks, at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Katie Couric “bought some beautiful peaches and nectarines, a big bag of kettle corn and a cute straw hat I really didn’t need.”

It was, as she wrote in a Substack post Wednesday, the last thing she remembers from that day. Couric would appear on a couple of panels at the event, though ““I have no idea what we talked about or of what occurred when the panels ended,” she wrote.

Afterward, she recalls feeling dizzy and weak, causing her husband John Molner to take her to hospital, where doctors and nurses quizzed her: “I wasn’t sure of the month. I thought it was 2024. And I believed Joe Biden was president,” she wrote, adding that she didn’t even remember that she had a newborn granddaughter named Virginia.

The hospital initiated a stroke protocol, Molner recalls in the blog post, adding that Couric reintroduced herself to the hospital staff whenever they entered the room. Ultimately, an MRI ruled out a stroke, and the doctors revealed their diagnosis: Transient global amnesia, a temporary lapse of memory, most common in middle age or older people.

“The cause seems to be as mysterious as the brain itself,” she wrote. “Someone described it as my brain failing to hit the record button.”

Couric, of course, has long been a public advocate for health causes. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, she shared the experience with her followers and supporters, chronicling treatment along the way. And after losing her first husband to colon cancer, she memorably televised her colonoscopy on NBC’s Today show to encourage people to get their own.

Last month’s health scare may not be cancer, but for Couric it is still an opportunity to educate people about their bodies. While the Cleveland Clinic describes it as rare, impacting only 5 to 10 people per 100,000 per year in the U.S., because the symptoms are so similar to a stroke, it is worth encouraging people to seek immediate medical help if they are suffering from them.

“While this was a freaky occurrence, it could have been much more serious,” Couric wrote. “So ultimately, I’m relieved — even though several hours of a Saturday in June will always be missing for me.”