American teen wakes up from coma speaking fluent Spanish | Inquirer News

American teen wakes up from coma speaking fluent Spanish

/ 12:30 PM October 27, 2016

Screen Shot 2016-10-26 at 3.12.26 PM

Reuben Nsemoh. Photo from Facebook/Fox 4 News

An American boy from Georgia, USA, surprised his family after he awoke from a coma and began to speak in fluent Spanish instead of his native tongue.

Sixteen-year-old Reuben Nsemoh was playing soccer for his school in Gwinnett County last month when he was accidentally kicked in the head by an opponent as he was diving for a loose ball.

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As a result of the impact, the high school sophomore suffered concussion-related symptoms and fell into a coma for several days, according to a Huffington Post report.

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Once he regained consciousness, Dorah Nsemoh, the boy’s mother, was shocked to hear his son unable to speak English and was only communicating using a foreign language.

Reuben, whose English has since returned, claimed that he knew a little Spanish because his friends and brother speak it fluently. Prior to his injury, he was never comfortable using it in conversations.

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“I wasn’t perfect, but my brother is a really fluent Spanish speaker, so he kind of inspired me with that too,” he said in the report.  After a few days of recovery, his knowledge of Spanish gradually slipped away.

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Reuben’s predicament may sound extremely peculiar, but his case was “not that rare,” according to a neurolinguistics expert.

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“For a number of complex reasons, such individuals may recover either both languages to the same extent, one better than the other, or only one of the two,” Dr. Michel Paradis, a neurolinguistics teacher at Montreal’s McGill University, was quoted as saying in the report.  “These effects are either temporary or permanent―again depending on a number of factors.”

Despite the severity of Reuben’s accident, Paradis said the young lad would turn out fine.

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“He is slowly regaining access to English, which is, especially at his age, a good sign,” Paradis added. “He probably still speaks about as much Spanish as he was able to before the accident.”  Khristian Ibarrola/rga

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