In August, surgeons successfully removed the carotid web. Remarkably, the day after her surgery, while recovering in intensive care, Althia began speaking again. This unexpected recovery stunned the medical staff. "Completely out of the blue, I just started speaking," she recalled. However, this miraculous return to speech came with a surprising twist—she now spoke with a distinct Italian accent, despite never having visited Italy or spoken Italian before.
This dramatic change in her voice puzzled doctors and nurses, who asked if she had always had an Italian accent. Her speech and language therapist said that the Italian accent was because she suffered foreign accent syndrome, a rare condition where a person’s speech changes to an unfamiliar accent, often following brain damage. Althia, who had lived her entire life in London with a British accent, found this transformation bewildering.
Althia's experience has been a journey of both physical and emotional recovery. While she is grateful to have survived the stroke, the condition has significantly impacted her sense of identity. "Even my laugh is not the same... I’m not me. I feel like a clown with an upside-down smile that people are watching perform," she expressed. The change in her speech has altered not just her voice but also her body language and overall presence. She described feeling like people are no longer meeting the "original" her, leaving her in a constant state of searching for her former self.
Every morning, Althia wakes up hoping her original accent will return, but doctors and speech therapists are uncertain if this will ever happen. "I’m still looking for the person I was before. Where do I go to find the button to switch this stuff off?" she wonders.
Despite the challenges, Althia has found support through the Stroke Association, which has provided her with home visits and opportunities to attend support groups. These resources have helped her come to terms with her new reality. "It made me realise having foreign accent syndrome is part of my story, and I shouldn’t be ashamed," she said.
Nevertheless, Althia often feels isolated, as she has yet to meet anyone else with the same condition. She expressed a strong desire to connect with others who share her experience. "I want to meet someone with it, and be able to relate to someone and have that connection," she said.
Althia Bryden’s story is a poignant reminder of the unexpected twists life can take and the profound impact of medical conditions on personal identity. Her journey highlights the importance of support and understanding as she navigates her new reality, holding onto hope that one day, she might find the "button" to switch back to her original self.
In May, 58-year-old Althia Bryden from Highbury, north London, experienced a life-altering event. She was found unresponsive in her bed with the right side of her face drooping. Upon being rushed to the hospital, doctors diagnosed her with a stroke that left her unable to speak and without sensation in the upper-right side of her body. The underlying cause was identified as a carotid web, a rare neck abnormality disrupting blood flow to the brain.
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