I woke up with new accent after suffering heart attack – now I sound like I’m from ABBA
A MUM woke up speaking like a member of Abba.
Georgina Gailey, 60, noticed her Swedish twang while chatting to her sister on FaceTime.
Hospital medics suspected a stroke, but two weeks later she was diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome.
The mum-of-two, of Hillingdon, West London, said: “I had a heart attack a few months earlier. I was getting better.
“I was very well spoken and now I say Ja rather than Yes.
“People ask where I come from and when I tell them they laugh. I smile but underneath it makes me sad.
“I’m English born and bred. I’ve never even been to Sweden.”
Georgina went on: “I went to the hospital and they thought I had a stroke.
“They kept me in for two weeks and then I was finally diagnosed.”
Foreign Accent Syndrome is a rare disorder which can occur after trauma to the brain.
Georgina said: “I don’t know if I’ll have the accent forever. I want to raise awareness because the more people know about it the more research will be done.”