Doctors in the Netherlands have been left baffled after a 17-year-old boy woke up from routine knee surgery unable to speak or understand his native Dutch, communicating exclusively in English, a language he had primarily learned at school.
The teenager underwent an uncomplicated knee operation under general anaesthesia. However, upon regaining consciousness, medical staff noticed that he was speaking only English and showed no comprehension of Dutch. He also initially failed to recognise his parents, raising concern among doctors and family members.
At first, physicians suspected the behaviour was a temporary reaction to anaesthesia, a phenomenon occasionally observed following surgery. When the symptoms persisted beyond the expected recovery period, the patient underwent further neurological and psychological assessments.
Specialists later diagnosed the teen with foreign language syndrome, an extremely rare and poorly understood neurological condition in which a person temporarily loses access to their primary language while retaining a secondary one.
Medical reports confirmed that the patient had no prior history of neurological or psychiatric illness, and the surgery itself was completed successfully without complications. Continuous monitoring showed that his memory, reasoning, and general cognitive functions remained intact, with the disruption affecting language processing rather than overall brain function.
Experts note that foreign language syndrome is distinct from foreign accent syndrome, a more commonly documented condition in which individuals retain their native language but speak it with a different accent. In this case, the patient completely lost the ability to use his mother tongue while retaining fluency in a learned language.
The rare incident has drawn attention within medical and academic circles, highlighting the complex and still poorly understood mechanisms of language processing in the human brain. Doctors continue to monitor the patient’s recovery and long-term language outcome.
