UK woman lost ability to talk after stroke; years later, she develops Russian accent

London, March 12: Often, a stroke paralyses human capacity to walk and talk. A woman in the UK also faced a similar ordeal and was told by her doctors that she would not be able to walk and talk again. She though has regained her speech but there is something strange that has happened to her accent and voice.

Rose Griffiths, a resident of Liverpool, was delighted to get her speaking ability back. However, to the amazement of her friends and families, she has developed a strong Russian accent!

"At first I wasn't able to communicate with the outside world and it was very frustrating. I always thought I would be like this, but knew I wanted to get better. When my speech came back, at first I had a Russian accent although I was born in Liverpool City Centre," 69-year-old Rose was quoted as saying by Metro, UK.

Medical experts said Rose's change of accent showed that she had a Foreign Accent Syndrome, a condition that sees a drastic change in a person's speech pattern.

Rose had a stroke in 2014 while she was working. She lost the ability to move her right side and was unable to read, write or speak, Metro added. The doctors said there was little hope of her getting back to normalcy though to their surprise, Rose regained her speech with a foreign accent a few years later.

Her strong Liverpudlian accent though has completely disappeared.

Rose is though not concerned much. "I'll never get my own accent back. As long as I am able to speak again, I don't care what accent I have. My daughters were marvellous and never gave up on me, they helped me to get to where I am now," she said.