Man speaks Danish after stroke, forgetting native language

An unusual case recently occurred in the city of Konya, Turkey. After a knee operation, a local resident Rahmi Karademir, who turned 67, faced an unexpected complication.

During the procedure, it turned out that a blood vessel in the man’s brain was blocked by a blood clot. Surgeons successfully eliminated the problem, but the consequences were quite unusual.

It turned out that after the clot was removed, the patient lost the ability to speak his native Turkish. Instead, he began to speak fluently exclusively in Danish.

“We noticed that the patient could no longer speak Turkish, but he spoke fluent Danish, a language we thought he had forgotten. There are rare cases in the medical literature where people who speak several languages ​​lose one language after a stroke, and another suddenly becomes active,” the professor explained.

It is noteworthy that Karademir had previously lived in Denmark about two decades ago, but had long since stopped actively using Danish.

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  After Knee Surgery, a 17-Year-Old Speaks a New Language

According to doctors, such situations are extremely rare in clinical practice. Sometimes patients who speak several languages ​​lose command of one of them due to a stroke, while the other language becomes dominant.

Despite the uniqueness of the case, specialists are optimistic and believe that Mr. Karademir will gradually be able to regain his lost ability to communicate in Turkish.

A similar case recently occurred in the Netherlands. A 17-year-old boy underwent knee surgery due to an injury sustained during a football game.

The operation was successful, but when the patient regained consciousness, he began speaking exclusively in English and claimed to be in the United States.