Not only did N.T.Thao bring happiness to her family members when she returned from the hospital after a life-threatening accident, but she also shocked them as she now speaks with an accent and dialect completely different from what she has been speaking for nearly half a century. The 46-year-old woman from the central city of Dong Hoi in Quang Binh Province had her central accent turned into a completely northern one, which is spoken by people in Hanoi and the neighboring localities. “Even her dialect and vocabulary uses have changed. She no longer calls the bowl she uses for daily meals the same word all Quang Binh residents do,” said Tran Dinh Lam, her older brother-in-law. On July 25 Thao was crashed into by a motorbike driver and fell into a coma as her head hit the ground, her family told Tuoi Tre. She was admitted to the province’s hospital, and later transferred to the Central Hospital in Hue for better treatment. Thao said she still feels constant dizziness and headaches since being discharged on August 7. “I have no difficulties speaking in the northern accent instead of my local one,” she said. Doctor Nguyen Chanh, from the military-run 103 Hospital, said the problem is caused by trauma to her brain after the accident. Meanwhile, Nguyen Minh Tuan, from Hanoi-based Bach Mai Hospital, said this could be a case of dissociative disorder, which is a condition that involves disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity and perception. “This is common for patients that recover from severe pain or stress,” said Tuan, who is the deputy head of the department of mental health. He added that there are cases when patients begin to speak foreign languages after recovering from an accident. “It’s not the result of a brain injury. The disorder can be treated if patients go to see mental doctors.” On the other hand, Bui Duc Phu, director of the Hue Central Hospital, asserted that this is a normal phenomenon, as there are many similar cases. In 2010, a similar case happened in the US when a Virginia woman suddenly spoke with a Russian accent after a tumble down a stairwell, according to a Washington Post report.