Family handout
Althia Bryden started speaking with an Italian accent after she had a stroke
“I remember thinking, ‘Who is that talking?'”
On 4 May, Althia Bryden was found in her bed unresponsive and with her face visibly drooping on the right side.
The 58-year-old, from Highbury, north London, was rushed to hospital and found to have had a stroke that had left her unable to speak or feel the upper-right side of her body.
Doctors identified a carotid web in her neck – a rare shelf-like structure that can interrupt blood flow to the brain – as the cause and, in August, they performed surgery to remove it.
The following day while recovering in intensive care, she says a nurse woke her to take her blood pressure and “completely out of the blue, I just started speaking”.
“She looked as shocked as I did. The nurse rushed to get colleagues round to my bed. No-one could believe I was talking after so long,” she explains.
However, the medical staff also noticed something strange about her voice.
“They asked me if I had an Italian accent before my stroke and were telling me I had a strong accent,” she says.
“In the whirlwind of it all, I was so confused.”
Family handout
Althia lives with her husband and full-time carer, Winston
The grandmother, who is a
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