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Lisa Alamia, a proud Texas native, went to get surgery done on her jaw about six months ago. The procedure was supposed to be simple: she had just wanted to her overbite.
When Lisa woke up, however, something else had also been changed.
Before surgery, Lisa spoke with a definitive southern, Texan accent. Now, she sounded like she hailed from across the Pond.
At first, even Lisa’s children thought their mother was pulling a prank on them. But as time passed, her family slowly realized that Lisa’s voice had, indeed, adopted a British accent.
Lisa went back to the doctor, in hopes of diagnosing her condition and finding a way to revert back to her Texan accent. Her doctor, Toby Yaltho, M.D., at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital, ran many tests on Lisa in hopes of diagnosing her condition and discovering its causes.
Dr. Yaltho was able to diagnose Lisa as having foreign accent syndrome (FAS), a condition that happens after one has endured brain damage or severe head trauma. Less than 100 people in the past century have suffered from this syndrome. Unfortunately, the cause of FAS is still being investigated by researchers and doctors around the world.
Lisa’s gradually become more comfortable with speaking in public again – right after surgery, Lisa tried to avoid speaking as much as possible, to avoid the judgment and distrust of others around her – but she’s now attending speech therapy, desperate to get her voice back.
