A Georgia teenager who suffered a life-threatening head injury last month while playing soccer awoke from a coma speaking fluent Spanish for the first time in his life.
Rueben Nsemoh, 16, shocked family members and doctors when he opened his eyes after a three-day coma and began uttering sentences in Spanish, despite having known only a few words before his accident.
“It started flowing out,” the teen told TIME on Monday. “I felt like it was like second nature for me. I wasn’t speaking my English right, and every time I tried to speak it I would have a seizure.”
Days after being treated in the intensive care unit, Rueben finally started stirring again. He began moving his hand and gesturing for food. And then he blurted out: “Tengo hambre,” or “I am hungry” in Spanish.
“I was very shocked. That’s something he’s never done before. When he got up and he started speaking Spanish, I was confused,” said Nsemoh, a 54-year-old high school teacher who is from Nigeria.
Nsemoh then ran out of the room to find help and brought back a nurse. “A nurse asked me what language does he speak. I said, ‘I speak English. He speaks English. We’re not Spanish-based people,’” Nsemoh said.
Doctors say Rueben’s brain scans suggest he will fully heal, but the family has been overwhelmed by mounting medical bills in the $250,000 range, Nsemoh said. A GoFundMe page for Rueben has collected more than $11,000 to go toward the teen’s medical costs. (Time)