British woman recalls waking up with a Thai accent after suffering stroke

A British woman suffered a stroke during a Turkey trip—and got the shock of her life when she woke up and started speaking with a Thai accent.

Cathy Warren, 29, recalled the incident in an interview with The Daily Mail.

Warren said she and her friends travelled to Fethiye, Turkey in September 2024 for her 28th birthday.

She started feeling dizzy on her way to dinner. Her legs "stopped working" moments later, making her unable to walk.

"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," she shared.

The woman recalled "crawling on the floor," prompting her friend to call the reception for assistance. "The receptionist came back with a wheelchair, and they just thought I was drunk. They took me to my bedroom, and I needed the toilet, but I had to crawl because my legs wouldn't work."

She was then brought to a nearby hospital, where she learned after taking various tests and scans that she had a stroke.

Warren recalled waking up with the left side of her body paralyzed. But what surprised her even more was her Hampshire accent that turned into a Thai accent.

Foreign Accent Syndrome

Warren's doctors diagnosed her with Foreign Accent Syndrome. Dr. Greg David Dayrit, a consultant and neurologist at St. Luke's Medical Center in Quezon City and Bonifacio Global City, told PhilSTAR L!fe that it's a rare acquired speech condition "in which a person suddenly begins speaking in a foreign accent even though they have never spoken that way before."

"It's characterized by changes in speech rhythm, intonation, and pronunciation that make it sound as if the patient has a foreign accent. Such a change in speech is unintentional and usually results from damage to the language and speech parts of the brain," Dr. Dayrit said, adding that it may be secondary to brain diseases such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain tumors, and multiple sclerosis.

According to the neurology expert, it will only improve over time through speech therapy.

The Daily Mail reported that Warren is finished with her speech therapy and is now halfway through her journey to recovery. She's now able to walk properly again, but her accent, to this day, still sounds "foreign."

"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," she said.

"The doctors don't promise that it will come back—it's really rare," she continued. "I feel like I lost part of my identity."