Rory Curtis A 25-year-old British footballer who, after waking up from a coma, fancies himself Matthew McConaughey and speaks French Country: Great Britain

Rory Curtis: From Footballer to Actor?

Rory Curtis, a 25-year-old British footballer, endured a serious brain injury and fractured pelvis after his van flipped over and collided with five cars near Tamworth, Staffordshire in August 2012. Curtis spent six days in a coma, and upon waking up, started speaking in broken French with the nurses, despite not having practiced the language in 12 years. The semi-professional footballer from the 'Stourport Swifts' club claimed he did not recognize himself in the mirror and believed he was Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey. It took some time for Curtis to realize that he may not have actually won an Oscar. However, he occasionally felt an overwhelming desire to leave the hospital walls and return to the movie set. Doctors determined that Curtis had suffered a multifocal intracranial hemorrhage. The blood vessels in his brain were damaged as a result of the accident, causing blood to enter his brain. He was discharged from the hospital in November 2012, no longer insisting that he was Matthew McConaughey. However, Rory continued to speak fluent French, and this ability remains with him to this day. He even confessed that he did not take a final exam in French and stopped studying the language in the ninth grade, yet suddenly became fluent in it. Curtis explained, "I cannot explain how it happened. It's truly incredible. I don't remember waking up, but my family told me that one of the nurses was from Africa, and I was conversing with her in French." There was also a period after the severe injury when Curtis believed he was still 12 or 14 years old. When his parents left his room, he would start crying. He would ask his mother if she had fed their dog, not realizing that the dog had died three or four years earlier. As soon as she told him, he would burst into tears again. When his memory started to return, he thought, "Oh, what does all this mean?" Curtis continued, "When my mom helped me to the bathroom, I couldn't understand who was looking back at me in the mirror. I had a scar on my right temple, and the hair on that side was shaved. Until then, I didn't realize I had a brain injury. I just thought I ended up in the hospital with a broken hip and elbow." Curtis had to undergo numerous tests. He remarked, "They asked me to do such trivial things as drawing a line from point A to point B, and I thought, 'Are you serious?' But then I realized that it was actually very difficult for me to do it. It seemed like my brain couldn't keep up with my hand." During the treatment process, an experimental drug was administered. His family was warned that Curtis would have difficulty even getting dressed and would experience short-term memory problems. However, within two months, Rory had improved and even returned to his team. He now works as a hairdresser. His mother, 57-year-old Vera, says, "He was so lucky to survive. We thought we were going to lose him. And suddenly he wakes up from a coma and starts speaking French." Luke Griggs, a representative from an organization that deals with traumatic brain injuries, stated, "Coming out of a coma doesn't often happen the way it is portrayed in movies. It can be a gradual process where the patient experiences episodes of confusion and disorientation, while the brain tries to regain some of its functionality."