Being in recovery after surgery can come with a lot of complications. It depends on what surgery you undergo, but there are always risks when it comes to getting back up on your feet after getting out of the hospital. There are many different situations I’ve heard about when it comes to recovering from surgery, but developing a British accent was not one of them.
Lisa Alamia was born and raised in Texas but sounds like she is from London, even though she has never visited there. Lisa says, “I’ve never been to England. I’ve never been to any European country actually.” Lisa is a mom of three and used to sound like she was from Texas. This video from Inside Edition shows viewers an old video clip of Lisa, and the English accent is nowhere to be found.
Lisa had jaw surgery to fix an overbite back in December 2015, and when she woke up, her English accent came to life. Waking up, Lisa was very confused. She wondered, “This isn’t me. This doesn’t sound like me. I don’t want this. Why did this happen? Just asking why!”
Lisa was diagnosed with a rare medical condition known as foreign accent syndrome. Her neurologist tells Inside Edition, “I was skeptical at first, of course, trying to determine if it was real. We want to make sure this was not a psychiatric disorder.”
Foreign accent syndrome is a very rare condition; only 100 cases have been reported in the last 100 years. Inside Edition interviewed a woman named Karen Butler, who is from Oregon. Following her dental surgery, she suddenly started speaking with an Irish accent.
More from LittleThings: Gymnastics Instructor’s Obsession With Troll Dolls Threatens Relationship With Her Family
It’s hard for Lisa, because there are people out there who think her accent is fake and that she’s trying to put on a front. Lisa says, “It’s not fake. It’s an actual syndrome, but because it’s so rare and so unheard of, people think it’s easier to just say, 'Oh, she’s faking it.'”
Lisa started speech therapy to help her get rid of her English accent. Lisa also claims that when someone tells her that she doesn’t sound British, she takes it as a compliment and that it shows her what she is doing is working.
To hear Lisa’s full story, click the video!
