Katsuyori Shibata was a Japanese professional wrestler who suffered pooling of blood and swelling in the brain after delivering a brutal headbutt during a match in 2017. He underwent emergency surgery for a traumatic brain injury in which doctors at the University of Tokyo Hospital removed his brain and put it back in.
After the surgery, when Shibata finally woke up, he was barely able to speak. The doctors couldn't understand him at first, until they realized that Shibata only was able to speak English and French. When the doctors asked Shibata in English was his name was, he responded with "Chris." When the doctors asked what year it was, Shibata responded with "2007."
Shibata did recall that he was a professional wrestler and had been one since 1985. But Katsuyori Shibata was born in 1979, and only would have been five or six years old at the time. Doctors initially thought that Shibata was deeply confused as a side effect of the surgery. Until one of the interns noticed that a brain in the freezer, which they had intended to use for research, was missing.
The brain that went missing? It was labeled "Chris Benoit."
