A British woman has said a stroke left her with an Italian accent and the ability to speak the language, despite her having never visited the country.
Althia Bryden, 58, was found unresponsive by her husband Winston one evening after suffering a stroke caused by a carotid web, which is a shelf-like structure in the neck that can interrupt the blood flow to the brain.
Mr Bryden described finding his wife "staring and unable to talk" as "terrifying" and said he immediately called an ambulance.
The grandmother-of-two remained in hospital for nine days.
On July 30, Mrs Althia was admitted back into hospital for a surgery to remove the carotid web and after three months being unable to speak, she awoke with an Italian accent and the ability to say words in the language.
It is thought that she has foreign accent syndrome, which is a rare medical condition that causes a person's speech to sound as though they have a foreign accent, even if they have not acquired it.
Mrs Althia, from Highbury, North London, said: "I spent three months after my stroke thinking I'd never be able to talk again... I felt like a shell of the person I once was.
"After my carotid web surgery, a nurse came to my hospital bed do a routine check and completely out of the blue, I just started speaking. She looked as shocked as I did.
"Firstly, I couldn't believe it was me talking, but I also didn't recognise the sound of my voice."
She said doctors and hospital staff gathered around her bed to hear her talk.
"The more I spoke, the more confused we all became," she added. "They asked me if I had an Italian accent before my stroke and were telling me I had a strong accent - in the whirlwind of it all, I was so confused.
"As the days went on, it was clear that I did have a strong Italian accent and I had no control over the sound I was making when talking.
"To my amazement, I'm also able to speak Italian... a language I've never learnt or spoke ever before.
"Without realising, I will say an Italian word mid-conversation, which is the Italian word for what I'm trying to say in English.
"I have no idea I'm about to do it - my brain just converts the English word into Italian."
Mrs Althia went on to say that doctors and nurses view her as "a bit of a medical marvel" as none of them had ever seen foreign accent syndrome before, causing her to realise how rare the condition is.
She described living with the syndrome in the aftermath of her stroke as "really hard".
"I wake up most mornings hoping that my old voice will be back again, I don't feel like me with this foreign accent. I can even hear the accent in my head when I'm thinking," she continued.
"It's a story I have to often explain to others too - when I meet people, they ask me where I'm from and I find myself retelling the story of how I've come to acquire this accent over and over again.