A 94-year-old woman in China woke up from a coma speaking fluent English — and lost the ability to understand or speak Chinese, hospital officials said.
“I can’t ever remember having a case like this before,” Medic Tao Hou, 45, told Central European News. “We assume that the area dealing with her ability to speak Chinese has been damaged.”.
The family of English teacher Liu Jieyu claims the Hunan province resident had not uttered a single word of English for more than 30 years before she awoke from her coma. She stopped speaking the language after retiring and going to live with her loved ones on the outskirts of the city of Changsha, CEN reports.
Jieyu was rushed to the hospital after suffering what doctors described as a cerebral infarction, which is a a type of stroke where the blood supply is limited instead of instantly cut off by a blockage, according to CEN.
She eventually fell into a coma and medical officials were unsure if Jieyu would survive. But doctors couldn’t believe their ears when they walked in one day and she asked in English, “Where am I? What is happening?”
Jieyu had mysteriously acquired the ability to speak the language perfectly, while simultaneously losing her ability to communicate in Chinese, CEN reports.
Even though doctors were baffled at first, they believe Jieyu will be back to speaking in her native tongue in no time.
“Brain cells to have an ability to repair themselves to a certain extent…we would hope to see at least some improvement,” Hou explained. “We anticipate with proper rehabilitation and rest she should regain the ability to speak Chinese.”
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