Colorado Rancher Suffers Traumatic Brain Injury, Becomes Accidental GeniusWow just amazing and also very sad. She has forget about
her whole life before the Brain injury. [
link to abcnews.go.com]
For most of her life, Leigh Erceg was an athlete who loved NASCAR, a bubbly tomboy who worked on a ranch in remote northwestern Colorado. She had boyfriends and a degree in physical education and zero interest in math or art.
A few years ago, Erceg, 47, suffered a traumatic brain injury and now she is a gifted artist and poet. She enjoys spending time puzzling over mathematical equations. She can “see” sounds and “hear” colors when she listens to music, although she is extremely sensitive to light.
She remembers nothing about her prior life. She doesn’t even recognize her own mother.
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Erceg’s condition is so incredibly rare that it took numerous scientific studies and brain scans to diagnose her with what is called “savant syndrome.”
Savant Syndrome is described as vastly enhanced cognitive ability in an area such as art and math. Acquired savant syndrome is when a person isn’t born with the condition, which is the case with Erceg. She also suffers from “synesthesia,” a mixing of senses, where the person can see a sound, or hear a color as a series of numbers and letters.
“Leigh is the only woman in the world who has acquired savant syndrome and synesthesia following brain injury that I know of,” said Dr. Brit Brogaard, a neuroscientist at the University of Miami who has been studying her.
It was 2009 when Erceg, who was managing a ranch in Maybell, Colorado, said she was feeding chickens when she fell into a ravine and suffered catastrophic spine and brain injuries.
“I don’t know what type of fall it was but it must have been pretty dramatic,” she said. “I just remember them saying ‘Leigh, keep breathing.’ I remember it was a sheriff, and he said, ’Leigh keep breathing.’ There isn't pictures, there is just words, ‘Leigh keep breathing.’”
Doctors were initially unsure she would ever walk again. What no one knew at the time was that her brain suffered the most severe damage, but in a unique way. Erceg has no memory of her old life, not even her childhood. She relies on Amber Anastasio, who she has been best friends with since the fifth grade, to help her understand who she used to be.
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