The Daily Populous Friday January 16th, 2026 night edition
Authored by dexerto.com and submitted by StemCellPirate

33-year-old Stephen Chase has revealed that, after every surgery, he wakes up speaking fluent Spanish despite only knowing a “low level” of the language.

Going in for surgery can be pretty scary, even if it’s a routine operation. There can be tonnes of sitting around, just waiting to be treated, and then you’ve got the post-op stage of recovery. That can be tougher than anything before.

Patients waking up from surgery after being pumped full of painkillers has produced a number of viral videos in the past. People have started spilling all their secrets or made up things that simply haven’t happened.

In the case of Stephen Case, a father from Utah, he wakes up from surgeries speaking Spanish for a little bit. And he’s one of around 100 confirmed cases of this.

American speaks fluent Spanish after every surgery

That’s right, every time Chase goes under the knife for a surgery, he wakes up speaking Spanish.

“Ever since I was 19, I have woken up from surgeries speaking Spanish every time. The nurses say they ask me questions like ‘how are you feeling?’ and ‘am I in pain?’ after waking up and I answer the questions in Spanish,” he told Kennedy News and Media.

The father-of-three noted that he spoke Spanish as a “low level” in High School, but that was years ago. Now, he’s become “fluent” at a “native level.”

He noted that he “frequently heard the language around me,” while growing up. “I spent a lot of time at my best friend’s house and his parents were always speaking Spanish. I never knew what anyone was saying but I heard it all the time,” Chase added.

As per LadBible, Chase has Foreign Language Syndrome, which sees people switch to another language or accent for a period of time. This could be minutes or hours. For Chase, it typically “subsides within an hour.”

It’s brought on by a number of factors, including brain injury, psychological stress, or after waking up from surgery.

“Now I tell people that I tend to wake up speaking Spanish so they’re prepared,” he added.

dogma4you on January 15th, 2026 at 12:00 UTC »

every ?

doesn’t that mean he just knows Spanish now?

Going_Native on January 15th, 2026 at 11:55 UTC »

It activated years of Duo Lingo lessons which seemingly weren’t paying off

kahi on January 15th, 2026 at 11:33 UTC »

33 years old and apparently being sedated is routine, that’s the bigger headline.