Couple in Viral Hospital Video Denies It's a Hoax

The Utah man shown in a viral video so loopy from anesthesia that didn't recognize the beautiful woman talking to him was his wife said he would be skeptical of his viral video, too.

Jason Moretensen and his wife Candice appeared on NBC's "Today" show Wednesday amid reports that the YouTube video "Seeing Her for the First Time Again" might be too good to be true.

In the video, Mortensen appears to have suffered amnesia after undergoing hernia surgery. The pharmaceutical executive is shown falling in love all over again with his wife of six years.

"You're the prettiest woman I've ever seen," he tells Candice from his hospital bed, not realizing who she is. After she informs him that they are married, Mortensen tells her he's "hit the jackpot" and compliments her "perfect" teeth. The video has been viewed over 5 million times online.

"He had been acting like that for about 20 minutes before I pulled out my phone, so I finally realized I need to get this on video so he can see how he acts," Candice Mortensen explained on "Today." She plans to show her kids the video someday.

Jason Mortensen said that he doesn't remember anything from the video. He has undergone four other surgeries for his hernia injury.

"I guess I've been a weirdo during all of them," Mortensen said.

Since the video exploded across the Internet, doubters have poked holes in the story. A user on Reddit pointed to a head shot of Mortensen from an acting auditions website. And Slate.com quoted a psychologist who specializes in memory impairment who discounted that the type of memory loss Mortensen seemed to experience could have occurred post-surgery.

Mortensen's surgeon, Dr. Paul Robinson at Intermountain Healthcare Hospital in American Fork, Utah, told "Today" that he was not in the room when Candice shot the viral video. But he said Jason's reaction, while unusual, would not be impossible either.

Earlier this week, Jimmy Kimmel revealed that he was behind another viral video showing a woman catching fire while twerking.

"I heard that on Jimmy Kimmel some video was faked, and I can understand all the skepticism,’’ Jason Mortensen said of his case. “I talked to my doctor yesterday, and he says he’s gotten like 150 phone calls, so I finally gave him permission to tell them that I had the surgery.”

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