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Sometimes, we tend to take on or try out different accents from around the world but one woman woke up one day and found out that she was suddenly able to speak in four different accents, after being left unable to speak for two months!
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Emily Egan from Essek, UK, was left unable to speak after an unusual brain injury and doctors are puzzled and unable to find an explanation as to why she suddenly went mute.
After two months of being mute, the 31-year-old had everyone even more baffled when she regained her voice but suddenly found herself speaking in four different accents!
Despite being born and bred in the UK, Emily now speaks with a Polish accent that can suddenly change to sound French and Italian as well.
And if she’s feeling stressed, Emily finds herself speaking with a Russian accent! If she’s super exhausted though, the 31-year-old notes that she can lose the ability to speak altogether!
Image via The Mirror
‘It’s not just my accent that has changed – I don’t speak or think in the same way as before this and I can’t construct sentences like I used to,’ she explained. ‘I write differently now, my whole vocabulary has changed and my English has gotten worse despite living in the UK all of my life.’
“My dad has said that I don’t sound like me anymore in that he’d never imagine me wording things like I do now,” Emily added.
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After months of test, the 31-year-old was finally diagnosed with foreign accent syndrome - a rare speech disorder caused by brain damage.
Unfortunately, doctors are still unable to find the reason behind it.
According to Emily, she was experiencing headaches two weeks before her voice suddenly deepened while she was working at the children’s home she manages.
After her speech became slow and slurred, she was rushed to a hospital for CT and MRI scans as the doctors initially feared that she had suffered a stroke.
A stroke was ruled out by the scans but the doctors still couldn’t understand why she had lost the ability to speak, so they sent her home and into the care of a neurologist to whom she communicated with solely through an app.
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Before falling sick, Emily had booked a holiday to Thailand and her neurologist encouraged her to take the trip and try to relax as much as possible.
Five days into her trip, she slowly found herself speaking again but with great difficulty and she noted that she “sounded deaf”.
While her voice slowly grew stronger, Emily was completely confused when she noticed that she was speaking in an Eastern European accent.
“I’m an Essex girl normally – my accent was really strong and my voice was very high pitched and really recognisable, people always knew it was me calling,” she said. “On holiday, I started making sounds like a deaf person trying to talk – it is thought that the neuropathways had started to open as my body had completely relaxed.”
“By the time I was home, the words were sounding like a foreign language,” she continued. “I was so thrilled when my voice started coming back but now I don’t even recognise the voice that comes out of my mouth, it doesn’t sound like me.”
“I actually used to be so good at putting on accents for my friends before this and I’ve even had people ask if I’m putting it on – as if I could keep it up this long!” she added.
Once a week private vocal therapy sessions may be helping Emily with her speech however, there’s no guarantee that she’ll ever be able to retrain her brain to speak how she used to.
On top of her sudden change in accent, Emily was also recently rushed to the hospital with a weakness down her left side and she has now been diagnosed with a functional neurological disorder as well.
Her left arm and hand are now paralysed but doctors hope she will regain feeling and movement with time and physical therapy.
“I’m only 31 years old and I am shocked at how much my life has changed in a matter of months,” Emily said. “I’ve had to stop working because my job is quite stressful and the doctors have said stress will only make my condition worse.”
“The hardest thing for me is learning that this voice is ok,” she continued. “I have to learn to accept that it’s ok for me to not be able to get the words out straight away, it’ll come eventually.”
“Doctors can’t predict what will happen with my voice. It’s just a matter of taking every day as it comes, so I’m just trying to stay positive and hopeful,” she said.
Image via The Mirror
We’re wishing Emily all the best and hope she has a full recovery!
Have you ever heard of such a condition? Let us know!
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