A 28-year-old woman from Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK, flew to the seaside city of Fethiye in southwestern Turkey in 2024 with friends for a holiday, which was meant to be a trip to celebrate her birthday. Unexpectedly, during the vacation, the woman suffered a sudden stroke, and when she woke up, not only was her left side paralyzed, but even her accent had changed from a British accent to a Thai one.
According to the Daily Mail, the incident occurred on September 27 last year. Cassie Warren recalled that on the day of the illness, she was still leisurely sunbathing by the hotel pool when she suddenly began to feel unwell: “That day I was sunbathing and felt like I might have gotten heatstroke, so I went to bed early, but I had a terrible headache. I thought it was just from the heat.”
After waking from her afternoon nap, Cassie was preparing to go out with friends to enjoy a birthday dinner, but on the way she suddenly felt a strong dizzy spell. Her legs instantly lost all feeling and she couldn't walk, which frightened her friend who quickly helped her onto a nearby lounge chair and hurried to get help. The hotel front desk staff then brought over a wheelchair. At first, the staff thought Cassie was just drunk and sent her back to her room.
Unexpectedly, when Cassie later tried to go to the bathroom, she found her legs could not support her at all and she could only crawl along the floor. Her friend, alarmed, called the hotel front desk for help again; after the on-call hotel doctor came for an examination, Cassie was immediately taken to the local hospital's emergency department. After multiple brain scans, doctors confirmed that Cassie had suffered a stroke and she was immediately transferred to the intensive care unit for treatment.
The next day when Cassie woke up, she found her left side paralyzed and that even her way of speaking had changed entirely. Her original Hampshire accent had completely disappeared and was replaced by a distinct Thai accent: “My mom is Thai, and she speaks with a Thai accent. Now my accent sounds like hers, a Thai accent—it’s a foreign accent.”
Regarding this, doctors diagnosed Cassie with “Foreign Accent Syndrome,” a rare disorder caused by brain injury or stroke that leads to changes in the rhythm, intonation, and way of speaking. Even though Cassie received speech therapy in the hospital, her accent did not revert to her original British accent. In addition, during her month-long hospital stay, Cassie's left side remained immobile and she needed assistance with daily life and even had to re-learn simple movements. She was not discharged and allowed to return home until October last year.
After returning to the UK, Cassie was hospitalized locally for a further two months for continued recovery treatment. After being discharged, she also underwent three months of rehabilitation to re-learn how to walk. It took about ten months for Cassie to regain basic mobility, and by summer 2025, she could finally walk independently and her physical condition stabilized, although her accent is still Thai.