Man Wakes Up From Surgery: Doesn’t Recognize Wife
This is quite the fascinating video to watch in the study of human behavior. Here we have a husband waking up from hernia surgery (his 5th one!) and he doesn’t seem to recognize his wife.
When I first watched it, I didn’t buy it. I see him hold back a smile and not very good–shortly into the video. I then watched the couple talk about this video on a morning talk show and they seemed genuine.
It took me some time to process everything I saw, but I think I can finally articulate what happened.
I suspect when Jason woke up from surgery, he was totally out of it. That’s normal. If you’ve had surgery, you know the fog you wake up into. According to his doctor it is possible not to recognize people, but that is very, very rare.
What does happen in surgery, at least for me, and he seems to experience it, too, is a whole new perspective, albeit very short-lived. I don’t know whether it is from the drugs or being knocked out, but what happens is your “perception of what’s before you” is cleaned, and you see things from an unattached (unemotional) perspective, if that makes sense.
I attributed it to the fact I was in pain, and my emotions about things around me were muted to cope with the pain (my body was in survival mode), and hence when I looked around, I didn’t see things through my normal emotional (biased) lens. I simply saw them for what they were. Hence, Jason doesn’t see his wife “as his wife” — he simply sees her as “a beautiful woman”–what she is at her basic core.
Does that make sense?
This is very short-lived, if you’ve experienced it. It goes away a day after surgery.
Jason may have looked at her in a groggy state and not recognized her for an instant, but decided to have fun with it once he put two and two together which was pretty quickly. Then I suspect he had fun with it and flattered his wife, because he was seeing her beauty through a totally different lens.
Jason, if you want my opinion, is a natural born comedian type who loves to play jokes on people, and he clearly enjoys making his wife feel good. I think he was aware of who she was, but he played up on it and had fun with it. It’s completely consistent with his personality.
And when he tells us now that he doesn’t remember it–it totally fits with after surgery experiences. He may not remember it, but he likely was aware of who she was and had fun making her feel like super important in the moment. And his wife captured that moment. What’s the harm in that?
I think the “are you a model?” part proves that he had to have known who she was. Even if you can’t remember who someone is, surely you would know the general requirements for a model. And, call me psychic, I’m betting his wife doesn’t fit those standards – most normal people *don’t*. So he was being a great husband, there.
It could also be a way to hit on an attractive woman. I’ve known people who used cheesy lines like that successfully on women they’d just met. When it’s done sincerely, it can definitely break the ice with a woman who has the right personality and temperament– some women actually don’t mind cheesy lines if the guy is being genuinely cheesy instead of trying to be serious, cynical, or manipulative.
I think he was being a great husband there too. I think he enjoys making his wife feel good. 🙂
Note to self – try more cheesy lines – thank Keith if anything ever comes of it 🙂
LOL, good luck to you!
the other option to me is that “are you a model?” shows how goofy the drugs were 🙂 There were a few videos I watched about this couple and every TV woman giving commentary just gushed about wanting a guy who treated her like this. So while I’m sure Eyes is right – he started out not knowing and then decided to have fun with it – this guy knows how to treat his wife really well. Totally agree, he was being a great husband there.
Haha – yeah. I was not specific enough in my remarks. Just the word “model” is a gestalt. If you know what one is, you know what they are supposed to look like. And his wife, while perfectly lovely, is not what anyone would call a “model”. So, if he was aware enough to use the word, he had to be aware enough that she really didn’t fit the requirements. That said, he was utterly charming & wonderful – *especially* for someone *just out of surgery!! (And I would agree that he could very well not have realized *right away* who she was; I still say that he had to have known by *that* comment)
Hey, as a guy that is unitiated to that modelling stuff, while I think I vaguely know the criterias for knowing if a girl can be a model,, I don’t really GET them. I know a brunch of short or more stocky (fat and stocky don’t mean the same thing, example bodybuilders) girls I would deem more pleasing to look at (in my biased opinion) than many models I’ve seen in pictures. Maybe to be a real model is something an average person can’t achieve, but looking subjectively as pretty as one isn’t that unachievable (at least 3 waitresses where I work qualify for that). That’s probably in that sense he made that compliment.
Oh man, those drugs really can make you say some crazy things. I remember when my sister had surgery she woke up and kept saying “I feel like I’m on drugs,” and we just kept laughing and saying “you ARE on drugs.”
When I first saw this, I *wanted* it to be true, and that clouded my observations a lot. After watching it more, I realized it was a very well done number, and I’m sure his wife enjoyed it very much. Attached is what they looked like on the Today show.
Thanks for your analysis, this was a fun one 🙂
she’s gorgeous!
thanks Eyes! the first time I saw it, I found it cute & funny. i thought it was real but still not 100% sure. then Keith commented on the vid & I watched it again. only then did I see a slight smile on the man’s face when he saw he was making his wife laugh. & found it funnier!!! maybe because of this too: “is a natural born comedian type who loves to play jokes on people, and he clearly enjoys making his wife feel good. I think he was aware of who she was, but he played up on it and had fun with it.”
Just for fun, check out this video where four famous people (celebrities of the day) with blindfolds could not recognize their own spouses in a Q&A game show 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKeoaUzhZYA
He’s adorable. I bet he’s a lot of fun to be married to.