When a Texas woman awoke from herniated disc surgery, her southern drawl had been replaced by a heavy Russian accent.
Abby Fender, 39, discovered after the treatment that her vocal cords had been paralyzed and she could no longer speak as she had for the majority of her life.
Doctors were initially baffled, but later diagnosed Ms Fender with Foreign Accent Syndrome, an uncommon disease.
Fender, a professional singer, said, “I woke up from my surgery and immediately knew something was very wrong with my voice, as I couldn’t speak with any volume.
“Soon, I began to feel the pitch of my voice go very, very high and we called it the ‘Russian Minnie Mouse voice’ where I sounded like a cartoon character all the time.”
Since it was first identified in the early twentieth century, foreign accent syndrome has perplexed neurologists and speech professionals. While people’s accents emerge over time as a result of their phonetic system, or sound patterns in their native language that they unknowingly learn as they grow up, FAS changes the entire patterning of someone’s phonetic system.
Since 1907, only about 100 cases of FAS have been identified. Some unusual cases have made headlines in recent years, such as two Australian ladies who gained heavy Irish accents while recovering from surgery in 2021 despite having no ties to the country.
Ms Fender was diagnosed with the unusual Foreign Accent Syndrome by medical experts who worked with her.
Ms Fender was surprised to discover that her vocals had been “paralyzed” and her Texas accent had vanished after surgery.
Ms Fender, a professional singer, said: ‘I woke up from my surgery and immediately knew something was very wrong with my voice, as I couldn’t speak with any volume.
‘Soon, I began to feel the pitch of my voice go very, very high and we called it the “Russian Minnie Mouse voice” where I sounded like a cartoon character all the time.’
The majority of the approximately 100 cases reported since 1907 were caused by injury to the speech region of the brain known as Broca’s area. Broca’s region, located on the frontal brain, is critical to a person’s capacity to explain thoughts and utilize words correctly in both spoken and written language.
The illness is more common in girls than in boys, and patients usually develop FAS as a result of a stroke. In reality, the first reported case in 1907 occurred in a patient who had a left hemisphere stroke. It can also be caused by developmental or psychological issues, trauma, or malignancies.
FAS can cause changes in how people pronounce words, their syntax and vocabulary, as well as variations in vowel length and tenseness. Some people with FAS may have difficulty producing sounds that require tapping the tongue behind the upper front teeth, such as ‘t’ or ‘d.’ Some people have difficulty pronouncing clusters of sounds like S-T-R in terms like’struck.’
There has been no report of brain harm in Ms Fender’s case. Her accent has recently shifted to Ukrainian and Aussie. She described the significant impact this ailment has had on her daily life, in which she is frequently asked about her strange and inexplicable accent.
She said: ‘I don’t want to lie about where I’m from, yet sometimes, I do because it’s easier. Every time I do this, I feel like I’m denying who I really am and that’s not a good feeling, but I get asked: “Where are you from’ at least 10 times a day.”’
‘I remember once I said that I was Ukrainian and the other person started speaking to me in their native tongue. I had no clue what to do, so I had to confess but before the current war, this wasn’t ever an issue, as no one asked questions.
‘Now, this isn’t so simple, so I try to avoid saying where I’m from and instead, tell them what type of accent they’re hearing.’
Ms Fender performed a battery of tests, including MRIs and CT scans, in an attempt to pinpoint the neurological basis of her disease, but her efforts were futile.
Her singing voice, which she had honed since she was 11 years old, was also faltering. She stated that she was unable to maintain the same pitch as before the surgery and that her voice had taken on a distinct tone.
In surgery to repair a herniated disc, there is a minor risk of harm to the spine and nerves. A dural tear is the most common consequence, occurring in roughly 1% to 7% of patients. It occurs when the surgical instrument nicks the thin covering over the spinal cord or meninges.
It is unknown, however, whether Ms Fender suffered a dural tear or any other serious complication from her surgery, which could explain her accent. ‘But we’ll never know,’ she suspects, because a problem during the treatment injured the Broca portion of her brain.
Ms Fender was coached by a speech pathologist to regain her singing pitch and relax her neck muscles sufficiently to talk in her natural voice.
She said: ‘I couldn’t believe it, as it was a miracle to hear my own voice again.’
‘It was like coming home after a very long trip, but this wasn’t to last, as only by using certain techniques such as blowing bubbles into a bottle of water using a straw, will I get my old accent back’
Despite the great strides she has made her her speech therapy, Ms Fender still falls back into an accent. Lately, she said she has been speaking in an Australian accent.
She added: ‘I’m starting to feel OK with everything, but of course, my most recent change has stirred up unexpected feelings of fear and embarrassment. I don’t like not being in control or knowing what I’m going to sound like.
‘It’s very scary.’
Credit: Dailymail