Amnesia/Plastic Surgery question

Well, it depends entirely on whether her inability to remember autobiographical past has also robbed her of knowledge and skills she needs to function. Most cases of retrograde amnesia leave things like literacy, language, even general procedural and factual knowledge intact. But a complete (or even partial) loss of one's personal history can still make it hard to function, in that a person might not be able to find their home or recognize their friends, family members, workplace and so on.

For instance, if I had an injury that left my knowledge of biology and classroom pedagogy intact, I'd still have trouble performing my job if I couldn't find my way around my campus and department or recognize any of my co-workers or have any specific memories of things we'd discussed or done in the recent past. It would also be extremely disruptive of personal relationships, of course. It's heartbreaking to hear about cases where someone loses years of their lives and has no memory of their spouse or of their children growing up.

Complete retrograde amnesia as a result of emotional trauma is rare and is most often associated with ongoing psychological trauma (though a single event can be a trigger).

The best advice I can give is to research the different forms of amnesia and examine some real-life cases that are similar to your story situation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/health/psychology/17brody.html?pagewanted=all

It's more common for memory loss to occur as a consequence of a brain injury. The severity and duration of the memory loss will depend on the severity and duration of the injury. For instance, it's not uncommon for someone to lose minutes, hours, days, and more rarely, weeks or months immediately preceding the trauma. It's less common to have complete retrograde amnesia (entire life erased) from a concussion or other brain injury.

http://synapse.org.au/get-the-facts/post-traumatic-amnesia-fact-sheet.aspx

http://www.human-memory.net/disorders_traumatic.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185403/The-woman-lost-20-years-memory-believes-1990s.html

http://listverse.com/2013/10/13/10-bizarre-cases-of-amnesia/

If what you're aiming at is the "no one knows who she is and she can't tell them," there have been people with apparent amnesia who have been treated as psychiatric cases (this usually results in them being rehabbed psychologically, then released to group homes, etc.). Otherwise, if they're lost souls, they get put into the social welfare system. How much help they get depends on what the social safety net is, and whether they want to be part of it.

So, here's the thing. There are very few documented cases of amnesia where the person forgets personal history but remembers everything function in the real world. So, she'd be hospitalized for an extensive amount of time in the real world, depending on who is paying. If she was injured on the job and and workers comp is paying she'll be in a pyschiatric hospital for a really extended period of time. If her identity is completely unknown, and no one is paying for her she would be discharged within weeks, most likely.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LaserGuidedAmnesia

-cb

I guess my real question is how does this need to go for the plot? Assuming she had ID on her at the time of the crash, people would know who she was, family would presumably be notified and come to help and she wouldn't just be some random person. Authorities would have a lot of information to go by, even if she wasn't. at this time, able to provide much help. We're not talking a Jason Bourne here, are we?

Jeff