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She lost all her memories -- except the Lightning

Brianna got a behind-the-scenes look at the Bolts recently after they heard about her story.

Minutes before the Lightning took the ice in Philadelphia during the final game before January’s All-Star break, an anxious 11-year-old paced around the living room with a television remote in her hand.

“All the other sports are boring to me,” said Brianna Schwab, dressed in her No. 32 black Tampa Bay Lightning jersey blanketed with autographs.

Her mom, Cheryl, smiled from across the room. This the version of her little girl she hoped she’d see again.

“You can lose from your mind, but maybe you can’t lose from your heart,” she said.

Brianna was always an active kid. She made straight-As in school and played youth hockey. She started feeling uneasy the night of September 18, 2017. She complained of dizziness and blurred vision. Brianna soon collapsed on the floor.

Brianna slept all night and was taken to the hospital the next day. She was admitted to Saint Joseph's Hospital for 10 days and underwent an MRI, EKG, bloodwork and a spinal tap. Doctors could not find any answers.

On Oct. 14, Cheryl and her husband, Eric, heard screaming from upstairs.

“I kept on tapping her and she wouldn’t wake up, so I had to call my mom,” said Brianna’s 9-year-old sister, Bianca.

Brianna was passed out on the floor of her bedroom closet. Bianca couldn’t get her sister to move or respond. Eric and Cheryl sprinted up the stairs.

“When I woke up from that pass-out, I did not remember anyone or anything,” said Brianna. “I have not remembered much since then.”

In the last five months, the Schwabs have visited hospitals in four different states. Trips to see experts here at home, along with Rochester, Minn., Houston, and Philadelphia have resulted in few answers.

Doctors' best guesses are that Brianna has some form of Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) – a disorder where most of your blood stays in the lower part of your body when you stand up. This makes your heart beat faster to try to get blood to your brain. Your heart rate can go up by 30 beats or more a minute after you stand up. As that happens, your blood pressure is likely to drop.

It also may have caused long-term memory loss for Brianna.

“It’s unheard of,” said Cheryl, who admits her daughter is low on energy since her fainting spell in October. “It’s something you hear in a story and you think it could never happen to my kid, and when it happens to your kid there are no words to express it.”

It took a few days for Brianna to realize Eric and Cheryl were her parents. She didn’t know her sibling’s names and long-time school friends became instant strangers. She forgot how to do simple math problems that she would handle with no problem before. She needed a full-time add at school and tutor at home. Brianna has tried speech, physical and occupational therapies.

“All my memory is there but my brain is not allowing me to access it,” Brianna says, according to her doctors. “Each time I remember something, it’s like me opening one of those locks.”

The biggest lock to open came on a weeknight with her dad. Eric invited Brianna to sit on the couch and watch a Tampa Bay Lightning game with him. He hoped she would enjoy seeing something rapid on the screen. Midway through the game, something clicked.

“I remembered it all,” she said.

The girl who couldn’t recall her sister’s names could now recite statistics for Bolts captain Steven Stamkos. She knew everything about Victor Hedman. She could name every player on the roster.

The Lightning failed to score during the first period in Philadelphia. Brianna sat on the couch with her family cheering on her team. The Bolts started the second period on a power play and took the lead quickly. Brianna screamed with glee as Ryan Callahan scored a nifty goal against the Flyers.

“Score!”

Three days later she sat in the upper deck with Eric and watched four Lightning players skate on home ice in the All-Star game. Nikita Kucherov scored for the Atlantic division team and Brianna bellowed, “KUUUUUUUUUCH!”

The Lightning invited her to a practice for pictures and autographs. She admits she was “kind of” nervous to meet her favorite players and make new memories.

The Tampa Bay Lightning invited Brianna and her family to meet the players.

“All she knows is the Lightning, which for us is very honoring,” said Hedman. “As a parent, I can’t imagine what it’s like to go through that.”

Doctors say Brianna’s long-term memory may never return. She’s slowly relearning her world.

“It’s been a roller-coaster ride,” said Eric. It’s been a real challenge with everything she’s been through. We’ve been multiple places to try to understand exactly what’s happened to her but the single biggest bright spot has been the Tampa Bay Lightning.”

If the Bolts win the franchise’s second Stanley Cup this year, it will cap a remarkable season. For this child who bleeds Bolts blue, the 2017-2018 campaign has already been memorable.

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