Nigerian Boy Speaks Spanish After recovering from Coma Due to a Head Injury

Georgia teenager who suffered a life-threatening head injury last month while playing soccer awoke from a coma speaking fluent Spanish for the first time in his life.


Days after being treated in the intensive care unit, Rueben finally started stirring again. He began moving his hand and making gestures for food. And then he blurted out: “Tengo hambre,” or “I am hungry” in Spanish.

  Doctors have not told the family why Rueben woke up speaking perfect Spanish, although they have sought consultation with a neurologist, but a similar case was diagnosed as foreign accent syndrome, a very rare condition in which people speak with a different accent, usually after head trauma or stroke, according to CNN.

 Rueben says he could recite just a few phrases in Spanish before his accident. The only ways he had heard Spanish were from his brother, who had previously studied in Spain, and his Spanish-speaking teammates.

In the weeks after the accident, Rueben gradually recovered the ability to speak English, and now he speaks both languages fluently, although he says the Spanish has begun to fade.