A 28-year-old English teacher from Russia allegedly stopped speaking Russian, his native language, for several hours after undergoing a colonoscopy under anesthesia, according to the Mash Telegram channel.
An endoscopist who spoke to the channel anonymously said this was the first time the man had undergone anesthesia. After the procedure, he took a long time to regain consciousness and, when he woke up, spoke only English. The doctors spent more than an hour trying to bring him back to normal before calling his wife.
Even after his wife arrived, the man kept speaking English, shouting, and trying to explain something. According to Mash, his ability to speak Russian returned several hours later, when he said he needed to use the restroom.
Could this really happen after anesthesia?
Such cases have been described in the medical literature, although the phenomenon is considered rare. It is known as foreign language syndrome, in which a person temporarily stops using their native language and switches to a second language they know.
For instance, a case report describes a 17-year-old patient who lost the ability to understand and speak Dutch after orthopedic surgery and communicated only in English for around 24 hours. He later regained the ability to speak his native language.
The exact cause of such reactions remains unclear. One hypothesis is that the phenomenon may be related to emergence delirium, a temporary state of confusion that can occur when a patient emerges from anesthesia.
Mash’s account has not been independently confirmed by a medical source. The Telegram post alone cannot establish the cause of the episode.
