Citation

Hem E. Tidsskr. Nor. Laegeforen. 2006; 126(24): 3311-3313.

Vernacular Title

En eiendommelig språkforstyrrelse etter bombelesjon i hjernen.

Affiliation

Avdeling for atferdsfag, Institutt for medisinske basalfag, Universitetet i Oslo, Postboks 1111 Blindern, 0317 Oslo. erlend.hem@medisin.uio.no

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Norske Laegeforening)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

17170795

Abstract

Oslo was bombed by British bombers 6 September 1941, and a 28-year-old woman was hit on the head by a bomb fragment. She was seriously wounded with a large defect in the cranium frontally on the left side, and it was believed that she was not going to survive. She was unconscious for 3-4 days, and when she woke up she had right-sided hemiplegia and complete aphasia. She gradually recovered, and two months later she was discharged from hospital. Remarkably, the brain damage had altered her melody of language, and she spoke with a German-like accent. This led to problems for her during the war: she was for example not served in shops. The case story was published after the war by the Norwegian neurologist Georg Herman Monrad-Krohn (1884-1964), and it is the best known case of the so-called foreign accent syndrome. In this paper, this rare syndrome is presented, emphasising Monrad-Krohn's patient and based on his writings and the patient's medical record.

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