British woman starts speaking Italian after waking up from stroke
Althia Bryden, a 58-year-old woman from Highbury, north London, has found herself at the center of a medical mystery after suffering a stroke earlier this year.
On May 4, Bryden was discovered unresponsive in her bed, her face noticeably drooping on the right side.
After being rushed to the hospital, doctors found she had experienced a stroke that left her unable to speak and without sensation in the upper-right side of her body.
Further investigation also showed the cause to be a carotid web, a rare structural abnormality in her neck that disrupts blood flow to the brain.
In August, surgeons performed an operation to remove the anomaly. What followed was an extraordinary development.
The day after her surgery, while recovering in intensive care, a nurse woke Althia to take her blood pressure.
To everyone’s amazement, she started speaking.
“Completely out of the blue, I just started speaking.
“She looked as shocked as I did. The nurse rushed to get colleagues round to my bed. No-one could believe I was talking after so long,” she said as cited by the BBC.
However, the joy of speaking again came with an unexpected twist. Medical staff noticed a dramatic change in her voice.
“They asked me if I had an Italian accent before my stroke and were telling me I had a strong accent,” she explained. “In the whirlwind of it all, I was so confused.”
Althia lives with her husband and full-time career Winston, and has never visited Italy or spoken Italian. Yet she now speaks with a distinct Italian accent and unconsciously uses expressions such as “mamma mia,” “bambino,” and “si.”
Before, I didn’t sound like the Queen, but I sounded British. I’ve always lived in London, but all my family are from Jamaica,” she said.
Her speech and language therapist believes she has foreign accent syndrome, a rare condition described by the NHS as a phenomenon where a person’s speech takes on an unfamiliar accent, often sounding foreign, typically following brain damage.
“Doctors and nurses saw me as a bit of a medical marvel – none of the nurses, doctors, therapists, or surgeons had dealt with foreign accent syndrome in their whole careers,” she said.
“This is when I realised just how rare this condition is. I wish more people knew about it.”
While grateful to have survived the stroke, Althia said the condition has taken a toll on her sense of identity.
“Even my laugh is not the same… I’m not me. I feel like a clown with an upside-down smile that people are watching perform,” she said. “It’s very sad – everything is different, even my body language is different. People aren’t meeting the original me. I don’t know who I am.”
Every morning, she wakes up hoping her original accent will return, but doctors and speech therapists are unsure if this will ever happen.
“I’m still looking for the person I was before,” Althia Bryden said. “Where do I go to find the button to switch this stuff off?”
Althia has received support from the Stroke Association since her stroke, including home visits and attending support groups.
According to the report, these have helped her come to terms with her new reality, although Althia often feels isolated.
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