I was with Kevin during his keynote presentation to the Thrive conference in Auckland New Zealand when near the end of his speech he became literally lost for words (ironically on the section “Eliminate” from Blue Oceans). The first sign something was wrong was that he had been sticking straight to the script. He came off stage, speech unfinished, and went to Auckland Hospital for tests and scans. The doctors ruled out anything serious and diagnosed a condition called transient global amnesia – a very short term condition in which the person has no recall of immediate and recent events (he was delighted to be told that the All Blacks were in the Rugby World Cup final, so much so that the news had to be repeated every 10 minutes). The Mayo Clinic describe the condition as “rare, seemingly harmless, and unlikely to happen again.” Kevin stayed overnight in hospital, I visited him this morning and his recall is back to peak condition but for the hour or so after the incident. I suspect he will categorize this as on-the-field concussion.
Kevin sends his thanks for best wishes sent. He was able to laugh at an interaction that happened soon after he took ill. Medics had been called and a couple of very competent chaps appeared quickly in the theater green room. One of them got right into it with the “follow my finger with your eyes” and “count 1-10 and then backwards” routine. Something twigged in the other medic who asked “Mate are you medically qualified?” to which medic #1 replied “no but my girlfriend is a nurse and I’ve seen her do this!” Only in multi-tasking give-it-a-go NZ.
Brian Sweeney, Chairman, SweeneyVesty
