After a traumatic brain injury, a teenager who had no ear for music discovered a rare musical gift. After leaving the hospital, he found that he had started playing 13 musical instruments.
Prior to the incident, 19-year-old Lachlan Connors from Denver, USA, tried to learn to play the piano, but his attempts were unsuccessful, as the boy did not have musical abilities.
“He really had no talent,” his mother, Elsie Hamilton, said in an interview. According to the woman, her son could not reproduce even the simplest melody.
Lachlan was a passionate athlete. He loved to play lacrosse and hoped to go professional in the future. However, the teenager suffered a concussion on the field during one of the games, which caused seizures and was eventually hospitalized.
“I fell on my back and hit the back of my head on the ground. I remember that I was able to get up, but my head was spinning and the earth was leaving from under my feet. I really didn't understand what had happened to me,”Lachlan said.
In the next few matches, he received several more blows to the head, after which he developed epileptic seizures and hallucinations, as a result of which Lachlan was forced to spend several weeks in the hospital.
When he was discharged, the doctors warned him to refrain from contact sports from now on. This news greatly upset Lachlan, who dreamed of becoming a professional athlete. However, he was not sad for long, because he soon discovered that he could easily reproduce music by ear. As a result, the teenager played 13 musical instruments, including guitar, piano, bagpipes, mandolin, and accordion.
“I honestly think something has switched in my head. Thank God it happened,”Lachlan said.
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Doctors at the hospital where the boy received treatment said head injuries could stimulate previously unused parts of the brain.
“Lachlan had a pretty serious injury,” said Dr. Spiridon Papadopoulos. “I think the boy’s talent was sleeping in some area of the brain that was activated after the trauma.”