A 29-year-old woman has recounted how her life was irrevocably altered after ignoring seemingly minor symptoms during a vacation, which resulted in her waking up with a Thai accent.
Cathy Warren was on a girls’ trip celebrating her 28th birthday in Fethiye, Turkey, last September when the unexpected occurred.
The plan for the evening was a big dinner, but Cathy never made it to the restaurant.
While walking with friends through the resort, Cathy suddenly experienced dizziness and then found she couldn’t move her legs.
During the interview, Cathy, a financial administrator, explained, “We were walking to dinner and we’d just taken some pictures […] and suddenly I couldn’t walk.”
“My legs wouldn’t move, so my friend put me on a sun lounger and went to get help.”
Earlier in the day, Cathy dismissed what she believed was merely heat stroke after experiencing a ‘bad headache’, but her condition rapidly deteriorated.
Initially, hotel staff assumed Cathy was intoxicated when they brought her a wheelchair, but she was quickly taken to the hospital, where scans revealed she had suffered a stroke.
Upon regaining consciousness, Cathy was shocked to find that the left side of her body was paralyzed and her southern English accent had significantly changed.
She was subsequently diagnosed with foreign accent syndrome, a rare speech disorder that can alter someone’s voice dramatically. The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) notes that this condition is extremely uncommon and often occurs following strokes or other brain injuries.
“I don’t think my voice is ever going to be the same,” Cathy stated.
“I used to have a British voice but I woke up and my accent was different. My mom’s from Thailand so she has a Thai accent. I would say that the accent I have now sounds like hers – it’s Thai, it’s foreign.”
Medical professionals believe the abrupt change might be due to her brain injury and the influence of her mother’s Thai accent. Cathy has undergone speech therapy but says her voice remains altered.
“I feel like I lost part of my identity,” she expressed.
Cathy spent a month receiving treatment in a Turkish hospital before returning to Hampshire in October 2024. Back home, she spent an additional two months in the hospital and three months in rehabilitation to relearn how to walk.
“I needed three people to walk at first… I’d say it took 10 months to get to the point where I could walk independently,” she added.
Unfortunately, doctors cannot assure Cathy that her original British accent will ever return.