Rueben Nsemoh, 16, shocked family members and doctors when he opened
his eyes after a three-day coma and began uttering sentences in Spanish,
despite having known only a few words before his accident.
Another teenager accidentally kicked Rueben on the right side of his
head during a game on Sept. 24 after Rueben dove for a loose ball, he
said.
Rueben, an aspiring professional soccer player, suffered a severe
concussion, went into shock and had to be airlifted to a hospital
“It started flowing out,” the teen told TIME on Monday. “I felt like
it was like second nature for me. I wasn’t speaking my English right,
and every time I tried to speak it I would have a seizure.”
“It was weird,” Rueben added. “It was not scary at all. I actually liked it a lot. It was really unique to me.”
Days after being treated in the intensive care unit, Rueben finally
started stirring again. He began moving his hand and gesturing for food.
And then he blurted out: “Tengo hambre,” or “I am hungry” in Spanish.
“I was very shocked. That’s something he’s never done before. When he
got up and he started speaking Spanish, I was confused,” said Nsemoh, a
54-year-old high school teacher who is from Nigeria.
Nsemoh then ran out of the room to find help and brought back a
nurse. “A nurse asked me what language does he speak. I said, ‘I speak
English. He speaks English. We’re not Spanish-based people,’” Nsemoh
said.
Doctors have not told the family why Rueben woke up speaking perfect
Spanish, although they have sought consultation with a neurologist.
It’s not unprecedented for patients to start speaking a different
language or using different accents after a major trauma. In June, a
Texas woman made headlines after she had surgery on her lower jaw and
then suddenly started speaking with a British accent.
In the weeks after the accident, Rueben gradually recovered the
ability to speak English, and now he speaks both languages fluently,
although he says the Spanish has begun to fade.
No comments:
Post a Comment