US Woman Wakes From Two-Week Coma With Completely New Accent

A US woman says she woke up from a two-week coma with a strong New Zealand accent, despite never visiting the country.

Her accent now shifts day-to-day and can sometimes sound British too - hear for yourself below:

Summer Diaz, 24, from Los Angeles, was hit by a car on 25 November last year and was rushed to hospital where she was found to have sustained numerous injuries including a broken pelvis, broken shoulder and a brain injury.

Following the accident, Summer spent two weeks in an induced coma and now has no recollection of the day it happened.

Summer says when she eventually woke she was disoriented and confused.

Initially, Summer couldn't speak and communicated through sign language, which she learnt at university.

As her voice started to return, Summer noticed her speech was different, but just put it down to being intubated while in a coma.

But as she went to speech therapy she felt her voice changing more and has since discovered she has a rare condition called foreign accent syndrome.

She said: "I went to rehab and my voice started to get a bit better. I was working with speech therapists but I was still speaking quite slowly, so it was hard to hear anything.

"As my voice got stronger people started to hear the accent more."

With Summer speech improving and with talking more, it wasn't long before people started to question her about her accent and ask where she was from.

She said: "My nurses would come in and say 'where are you from?' and wouldn't believe me when I said 'I'm from here.'

"I would explain I was born here but they would say 'but you have an accent.'

"I had to explain that it wasn't my accent and I just started doing it."

Throughout her recovery, Summer has gone through a range of accents, with some lasting just a few hours and others staying for months.

She said: "I had a very British accent, close to my boyfriend's for a while. I had a French one at one point and briefly, I was Russian.

"At the minute, it's settled on an Australian or New Zealand accent."

Although it is a little unusual, Summer actually really loves having foreign accent syndrome.

She said: "If I get hit by a car but get to the keep the accent, I'm ok with that - that's the best part. That's fun.

"I was always texting my friends telling them I really want to keep it because I really like accents."

Featured Image Credit: Jam Press

Topics: New Zealand, Interesting

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

@ClaireReid19