An Australian man woke up from a coma speaking fluent Mandarin and no longer able to speak English.
According to Australia's Network 10, Ben McMahon was involved in a car crash that left him in a coma for more than a week.
In 2012, a horrifying car crash left the Melbourne man in a coma for more than a week. When he finally did wake up, he wasn’t speaking English.
"I kind of slowly came out of the coma," said McMahon, now 22, "and then set eyes upon an Asian looking nurse and then the first thing that came was natural was to come out and say in Chinese, ‘Excuse me nurse, I feel really sore here,’" which Ben said in fluent Mandarin.
"We got the call from the hospital," recalled Ben’s father Mark, "and she was saying ‘Oh Mark, look, I just wanted to ring and let you know that Ben’s actually started to come out of the coma… and she said, ‘I don’t know how to say this… he’s speaking Mandarin’."
Ben had studied Mandarin in school but didn't consider himself fluent. Now native speakers in China are saying his Mandarin is even better than theirs.
"He asked the nurse for a piece of paper and a pen," says Mark, "and he scribbled on this paper in Mandarin ‘I love my mum, I love my dad, I will recover.’ Gave it to her and then went back to sleep."
"I wasn’t consciously thinking I was speaking Mandarin." McMahon said. "It was what just came out, and it was what was most natural to me."
McMahon has since completely recovered, regaining his ability to speak English. He has also retained his ability to speak Mandarin and now lives in Shanghai.