Remember Ten Second Tom from the movie 50 First Dates? The character was an amnesiac who could only keep events in short term memory for about ten seconds at a time.

Although Tom was a very funny character, reality isn't nearly as amusing. Today, New Yorker Magazine published an article about a real-life case even worse than Ten Second Tom...

In March of 1985, Clive Wearing, an eminent English musician and musicologist in his mid-forties, was struck by a brain infection - a herpes encephalitis - affecting especially the parts of his brain concerned with memory. He was left with a memory span of only seconds - the most devastating case of amnesia ever recorded.

Although Ten Second Tom was very funny in the movie, Clive's reality sounds absolutely terrifying.