Main Category: Neurology / Neuroscience
Article Date: 20 Jul 2013 - 1:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Rare amnesia made American man speak Swedish
Imagine waking up one day and speaking a completely different language, with no idea who you are. It sounds far-fetched, but this is exactly what happened to Michael Thomas Boatwright on February 28th this year.
According to a newspaper report in the The Desert Sun, Boatwright was found unconscious in a motel in Palm Springs, California. He was taken to the emergency room at the Desert Regional Medical Center. When he awoke, it became apparent that the man was suffering from amnesia.
Boatwright suffered a complete loss of identity - only answering to the name Johan Ek - and could only speak Swedish.
It is reported that when Boatwright was discovered, he had with him four forms of identification. A passport, a California identification card showing he was from Florida, a veteran's medical card and a social security card. All four of them identified the man as Michael Thomas Boatwright.
Reports say that hospital staff carried out numerous mental and physical health examinations to determine the cause of his condition. He was diagnosed with Transient Global Amnesia (TGA) in a "fugue state" by a psychiatrist and psychologist on March 13th, 2013.
Transient global amnesia is described as a sudden, temporary episode of memory loss that cannot be attributed to more widely recognized neurological conditions such as stroke or epilepsy, according to the Mayo Clinic in Pheonix.
This condition means that there is a complete loss of recall of recent events, but the condition is supposedly short-lived, very rare and has no long-term effects on the memory. When transient global amnesia is in a "fugue state", this means the condition can last for a few months, or even longer.
The social worker assigned to track down Boatwright's next-of-kin, Lisa Hunt-Vasquez, reportedly discovered that the man had served in the US Navy from 1971-73 as an aviation mechanic.
It was found that Boatwright had flown from Hong Kong to Palm Springs on February 24th, but it is not known why he was in the region.
However, the social worker did find evidence that linked Boatwright to Sweden, the newspaper report says.
Hundreds of 3D graphic design art pieces were found on the internet that were created by Boatwright, and various forums linked to these list him as a Swede living in China, teaching English and designing there.
Further investigation found that Boatwright could have two sisters living in Sweden, and there are photographs of him in the country as a boy, but more details could be found and no contact could be made with relatives, the report says.
Boatwright told the The Desert Sun:
"When I look at the photos, I see my ex-wife and my son ... my mother and grandmother, but I don't recognize them. I don't know them.
"Sometimes it makes me really sad and sometimes it just makes me furious about the whole situation and the fact that I don't know anybody, I don't recognize anybody."
The newspaper reports that Boatwright is still at the Desert Regional Medical Center, where his care is currently being funded by the hospital.
Boatwright told reporters in response to the idea that he could have been faking his condition:
"Walk in my shoes for one day. You'll experience the nightmare of a lifetime."
In May 2011, we reported a similar case. Karen Butler, of Toledo, woke up after anesthesia for dental surgery speaking an accent that was totally unrecognizable from the Oregon accent she went in with. She reportedly started talking in a mixture of British and Irish with a hint of eastern European.
Written by Honor Whiteman
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