As you might already know, severe migraines can put a damper on your daily plans. But as one U.K. woman discovered, they can also change your life forever.
After experiencing a severe migraine, 38-year-old Sarah Colwill was rushed to the hospital. Doctors and medical staff did all they could to keep her comfortable, and eventually, the migraine dissipated. Unfortunately for Colwill, when she awoke the next day, she discovered that her native Plymouth accent was gone and had been replaced with a Chinese accent.
Colwill was later diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome, a rare medical condition that causes patients to develop unfamiliar speech patterns that replace their own accents with different ones. Foreign Accent Syndrome is typically the result of a massive stroke or head trauma, but migraines and developmental problems can also cause it. There were only 62 reported cases of the syndrome worldwide between 1941 and 2009.