Dutch teenager, 17, woke up after knee operation forgetting how to speak his native language and only knew ENGLISH (and he also forgot who his parents were and thought he lived in Utah!)

U.K. Daily Mail ^

[simpson96]

A Dutch teenager completely forgot his native tongue after waking up from surgery and could only speak English, doctors have revealed.

The unidentified 17-year-old boy, thought to be from Maastricht, was in hospital for a knee operation following an injury during a football match.

But after he awoke from the anesthesia, he was unable to speak or understand any of the medics, who were speaking in Dutch.

Instead, he was only able to talk in English — a language he had only been learning at school and never used outside of the classroom.

The boy also failed to recognise his own parents and believed that he was in the US, specifically in Utah, a country he had never visited.

After 24 hours, the teenager 'spontaneously' recovered both his ability to speak and understand his native language after friends came to visit him.

And doctors who treated him, at the Maastricht University Medical Center, claim he has retained his native tongue since.

Detailing his case in a medical journal, scientists believe he developed an extremely rare case of foreign language syndrome.(snip)

With just eight cases recorded worldwide in scientific literature there are scant details about foreign language syndrome.

How common is it?

Extraordinarily rare, there have been only eight post-operative cases recorded in scientific literature since 1999.

[Utah Binger]

Danish Not Dutch Min gode ven.

[Elsie]

Close enough for FR work.