Travelling Accent Without Leaving Home

56-year-old tax adviser, Karen Butler from Toledo, Oregon, has never travelled further than Mexico.

But she found herself with a British-sounding accent, although she's never been to Europe.
Thanks to the transformation by a dental procedure she walked out with, after a surgery.

Mrs Butler was given an anesthetic a year and a half ago, while her dentist removed several teeth.
All her top teeth and front bottom teeth were removed in November 2009 because of gingivitis.

She woke up with mouth all sore and swollen, and just talked funny.
The dentist said that she will talk normally when the swelling subsides. 
A week later after the swelling had gone away, she still sounded strange.
Her dentist then told her she just had to get used to her new teeth.
But as weeks stretched on with no change, she did some online research.

Neurologist Ted Lowenkopf then diagnosed her with foreign accent syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, although dental surgery is not associated with the syndrome.
Sufferers usually gain their newfound voices after severe head trauma such as shrapnel wounds acquired in combat, or after strokes.
But Mrs Butler has neither of these, and her doctor is still unclear the cause of her changed speech pattern.

When it first happened, the family did not know what it was.

The mother of five according to Daily Mail, said her family at first treated the bizzare affliction as a joke.

One of her daughter even recorded her mother saying the phrase, 'I am going to suck your blood', in her trademark Transylvanian ringtone on her cell phone.
A year and a half later, her 'foreign' accent remains, and has transformed into a more German or eastern Europe sounding voice.

Mrs Butler was suspected to suffer a small stroke which damaged the part of her brain that affects speech pattern and intonation.
But the drug Halcion, used to sedate her has not been linked to strokes.

According to Dr Helmi Lutsep, professor and vice-chair of the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University, the syndrome is often the result of brain injury; though it is uncommon.

Most neurologists will see at least one case in their career.
It simply affects rhythm of language.

Neurologist William Katz from the University of Dallas, Texas, has studied a number of patients since 1987 in his speech lab, trying to understand and fix the circuits that underlie it.
He had tried to retrain but failed, the speech pattern of a Dallas woman who acquired a Swedish accent.
She had failed to talk in different way, except Swedish accent.
Her new foreign tongue transform her from an ordinary person to an interesting person, whom others want to know more of her.

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The Condition That Gave Me A Chinese Accent  
Foreign Accent Syndrome has left a West Country woman with a very strange problem . . .
Amelia Hill

Sarah Colwill, who has developed FAS Photograph: Adam Gerrard / SWNS.COM

Sarah Colwill initially found it amusing when a series of migraines caused her native West Country accent to be displaced by a Chinese lilt. But after a month, the joke is wearing thin for the 35-year-old IT project co-ordinator. "I have never been to China," she says. "It is very frustrating and I just want my own voice back."
Colwill is one of around 60 recorded cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS), a rare condition arising from damage to the part of the brain that controls speech and word formation. Usually a side effect of severe brain injury, FAS can also be catalysed by psychiatric illness. Some sufferers regain their original accent, either spontaneously or through intensive speech therapy, but for others, the change is permanent.
Colwill is not the only sufferer to find the syndrome hard to bear. Wendy Hasnip, from Yorkshire, began speaking with a French accent after a stroke in 1999. "While I have nothing against the French, this is not for me," she says. "It does nothing for my street credibility with my three sons."
"It's in our ears," says Professor Sophie Scott, from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. "Speech may be altered in terms of timing, intonation, and tongue placement, so that is perceived as sounding foreign."
But the fact the accent isn't real doesn't mitigate sufferers' distress. Colwill complains that friends hang up when she phones, convinced that it is a hoax call. Scott also remembers Kath, from Stafford in the Midlands, who resorted to carrying a note explaining how cerebral vasculitis had left her sounding eastern European. "She just got fed up of people explaining to her how the buses worked," she says. "Voice is a key part of who we are and how we fit in to the world around us. Sometimes FAS can be more difficult than a trauma that robs us of speech entirely."

Source: Guardian - Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The Maid - Unholy Acts In The Holiest Place (11)

Daring Escape

A newly arrived Asian housemaid, in her 20s, had a fall three days ago, from the third floor of a residential building in Alkhobar, eastern town of Damman, Saudi Arabia.

She made the run away attempt from the seventh floor apartment through a kitchen window.
She then clung to pipes stuck to the building and started to slide down.
Upon reaching the third floor, the pipes collapsed due to her weight and she hit the ground, where she met the fatal fall.
Arab News reported she was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries but later died at the hospital.

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Another death fall befell on a housemaid in her 40s, in an attempt to flee her sponsor's house in Makkah.

She was trying to escape through sanitary pipes along with her personal belongings.
Okaz / Saudi Gazzette reported the “homesick” housemaid arrived in the Kingdom two months ago in March, only to find death the next month, in the second week of April.

The housemaid suffered multiple fractures of her arms and legs.
She suffered from brain hemorrhage too, which caused her death.

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Early this year, January 12, Arabic language daily Almadina reported yet another Indonesian housemaid's death.

The female migrant worker sneaked through the bathroom’s window in an attempt to flee her employer.
She went up to the roof of the the fourth floor building in the central town of Makkah.
Once there, she found a rope, dangled it down to reach the ground.
She then tried to climb down using the rope, but lost her balance and plunged down.

The maid laid on the ground for nearly 15 minutes before she died.

She was found by residents who were leaving a mosque after prayers.

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Photo: ist

PT Aji Ayahbunda Sejati (AAS), flew then 19-year old Armayeh binti Sanuri, from Teluk Lerang, Kuala Mandor, in the district of Kuala Mandor, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, to Saudi Arabia.

She started working for the family of Hasim Ahmad Ali Bader Saeni and Madam Hanan Hasim in Madinah on March 24, 2009.

Armayeh admitted of receiving almost daily abuse and mistreatment from her female employer since the third month into her job.

Wounds and pus on her head.

Her head was often stepped on.

She suffered infectious ears, and were almost torn-like.

She was poured hot water too.

She could bear no longer. 

She seized the opportunity to flee from her working place when the door was not locked.

With wounds all over, she fled on January 26 at 3.30pm.

A neighbour, another Saudi citizen, who happened to spot her critical plight, helped to rush her to Al Ansar Hospital in Madinah at 10pm.

The medical staff immediately called the Indonesian Consulate General.
The Indonesian Consulate has agreements with some Saudi hospitals to notify the embassy or consulate, should an Indonesian national be admitted.

Armayeh's serious condition led her hospital stay transferred to King Fahad Hospital in Jeddah.
She underwent plastic surgery performed by team from King Abdullah Hospital at 1am.
She is currently, still receiving treatment.

Her female employer, Madam Hanan Hasin had been arrested.
Before the arrest was made, her employer visited Armayeh at the hospital.
The girl was offered SR18,000 (Rp 52.9 million) for her change of statement.
The offer was flatly turned down.

Although her salary is SR800 per month, she had just sent home SR6.000 Riyal (Rp 14,3 million) to her parents, during her 23 months stint in the Kingdom.

PT Aji Ayahbunda Sejati (AAS), who made Armayeh's presence possible in Saudi Arabia, bear full responsibility of the girl's welfare.

Her family was provided initial financial assistance of Rp 25 million (SR10,500), with insurance of Rp 100 million yet to receive.

PT Aji Ayah Bunda Sejati brought the parents of now 20-year old Armayeh binti Sanuri, to Saudi Arabia to see first hand of their daughter's condition.
The company provides their needs while in Saudi.

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From Frying Pan To Fire Runaway Maids End Up In Harsher Conditions

JEDDAH: Housemaids who flee their sponsors due to bad working conditions to seek work in the black labor market often end up in a situation of jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

In many cases they find themselves at the mercy of sleazy labor brokers who send them to work illegally in conditions that are little different from the legal situations, and often much worse. 
“They seize our IDs, lock us up in secluded rooms and make us live in very difficult conditions, which is no less than indentured servitude,” a maid told Arab News on condition she not be named.
Nuriyyah, an Indonesian maid who has been working for two years in Saudi Arabia, describes the situation she found herself in as “slavery” after being legally recruited and brought to the Kingdom. The wage she ended up receiving was not enough to feed her family back home.
“My sponsor often delayed my payment under the pretext that he had other pressing commitments,” she said. “I had no other choice but to flee.”
Nuriyyah said she lived in a small apartment after her escape with a large number of illegal housemaids who came for Haj or Umrah and overstayed their pilgrimage visas.  She said the man who ran the house essentially acted as an illegal-labor broker.
But what Nuriyyah discovered is that people who hire maids illegally often end up being worse than employers who seek workers through legal channels and at greater expense.  “The new employer and his wife used to beat and humiliate me all the time,” she said. “They also took my iqama. I served them for my food only.”
The maid says she has never been paid for her work. Eventually she fled her illegal employers. She ended up under the Sitteen Bridge, a congregation point for foreign laborers who have fled their sponsors in the hope they will be picked up by the police and deported.
Another Indonesian maid, who did not want to be named, said though she had been an adventurer all her life and would work hard to earn money, she had fears that she might fall victim to inhuman practices on the hands of her new employers.
“I now live in a small house with a large number of illegal African and Asian housemaids,” she said. “The brokers who distribute us among their customers do not care much for what will happen to us. They are only after money.”
She added that she was living in very difficult conditions in this house but her need for money would force her to continue.
The unidentified Indonesian housemaid said she witnessed her co-workers being beaten by merciless employers who know that illegal domestic servants are essentially hostages with few choices.
“Many housemaids had similar experiences but were finally able to make some money and go back home. In order to succeed, you have to take chances,” she said.
Commenting on the issue, spokesman for Jeddah police Col. Misfer Al-Juaid said many of the houses that accommodate runaway maids are found in the districts of Al-Bawadi, Ghulail and Kandara.
“We carry out weekly raids on such houses after identifying them,” he said. “We arrest the illegal residents, take their fingerprints before handing them over to the Passport Department for deportation.”
After these workers end up in the custody of Saudi immigration authorities, a long process for exit clearance takes place. Often these workers have no ID because their passports are with the employers from whom they fled. Saudi authorities must work with foreign missions to establish identities and check for criminal backgrounds before they can be sent home. 
Al-Juaid pointed out that an illegal worker can be exposed to more abuse than legal workers, because sponsors are aware that there is little recourse for reporting or challenging abusive situations. “The illegal housemaids bear all these inhuman treatment in order not to be caught by the passport police and sent back home,” he added.
The most common form of maid abuse is not paying salaries, followed by physical and sexual abuse. The Saudi authorities do not offer statistics of the number of abuse cases reported to them, but the problem is acute enough that labor rights activists and foreign missions – especially of Indonesia and the Philippines – maintain shelters for fleeing maids, especially women.
Supervisor of the National Society for Human Rights in Makkah province Hussain Al-Sharif described violence against housemaids as inhuman and un-Islamic.
“Just because they are paying them money, some employers will come to believe that they literally own their housemaids and they have the right to ask them to do anything,” he said.
Al-Sharif agreed with Al-Juaid, saying that illegal workers face a greater chance of being abused with impunity.
“Violence against housemaids, whether they are legal or illegal stayers, is inhuman and totally against Islam,” he added. “We completely reject such practices and deplore exploitation of any human being.”
Al-Sharif asked all employers to consider the pressing conditions that drove the housemaids to come all they way from their countries in the first place. The main reason is remittances, the money they can save up to send home to feed their children or other family members. Not paying a maid could mean a child back home goes without food, clothing or medicines.

Source: A1 Saudi Arabia - January 12, 2011

to be continued...

'Facing' The Tumour

Monday September 7, 2009
 
Surgical Relief - By S.S. Yoga
HAVING a 90kg tumour wrapped like a boa constrictor around your stomach and back seems like a horrible nightmare. For  Lori Hoogewind,  a mother of two from Michigan, this was true life. She was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis (NF) in May of 1999 and by December, the tumour had grown to that size.
According to doctors then, it was probably the biggest tumour they had ever seen for that condition. It took a serious of highly dangerous operations to remove the tumour; she would have lost her life otherwise as the tumour was leaching her blood and food supply.
Most doctors here in Malaysia do not want to undertake any dangerous procedures to remove the tumours for cosmetic reasons. Plastic surgeon Dr Alizan Abdul Khalil says some patients with extensive facial/neck tumours or lesions would seek advice to remove them.

Neurofibromatosis patient  Huang Chuncai  eating in his ward in a Guangzhou hospital in Guangdong province, after the largest of his tumours, which weighed 15kg, was surgically removed in this August 2007 file photo. Huang, who was then 31, used to have to live with a facial tumour that weighed as much as 23kg.
 

“Removing NF is like ‘drying a roof-top when it is raining’ which means, it is fruitless and impractical. The lesion will grow back and patients who had their lesion removed will have scars all over. The only role for surgery is when the lesion itself grows and is impinging on a vital structure such as the spinal cord or nerves,” advises Dr Alizan.
NF is a genetic disorder of the nervous system which causes tumours (or neurofibromas) to form on the nerves anywhere in the body. It affects all ethnic groups and both genders equally. It is an inherited disease and is not contagious. It is estimated that 50% of the cases are the result of spontaneous genetic mutation.
There is no known cure though the reason for it has been identified. A gene that produces a protein called neurofibromin undergoes mutation. This results in too little or zero production of neurofibromin. This protein actually acts like a kind of brake on cell division and if the “brake” is faulty, it means the cells will keep on multiplying. Hence the tumour keeps on growing.

Malaysian student Yvonne Foong, 22, has neurofibromatosis type II, which has severely affected her sight and hearing due to tumours in the brain and spine.
 

Normally these tumours are benign but in some cases they can turn cancerous. The symptoms for NF are varied and can occur in varying degrees, too. Some of the symptoms might indicate other conditons but if one has two or more of the symptoms, it is likely that one has NF.
There are two types of NF. NF1 occurs as cafe-au-lait spots and bumps (six or more is a danger sign) under the skin or even nodules that protrude above (many of which require no treatment), or freckles in the armpits and groin, while for others it can be bone deformities, or even blindness.
NF2 involves tumours in the brain, spine and peripheral nerves and can lead to facial paralysis, deafness, partial blindness, and poor balance.
Both Hong Siew Hui and Tan Kia Khim have NF1.
Trials and research are being done to look at drugs to control the cellular growth and check if cancer treatments can be used.

Source: Children’s Tumor Foundation (www.ctf.org) and Neurofibromatosis Inc (www.nfinc.org). - The Star

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Monday September 7, 2009

A Life They Can Face - By S.S. YOGA and G.C. TAN
They are a model of courage, spunk and tenacity as they take adversity in their stride.
ONCE in a while, we come across an individual who reminds us of how grateful we should be for what we have. Hong Siew Hui and Tan Kia Khim are two such individuals. Despite living with a disfigurement for a good part of their lives, the spirited duo display a tenacity and strength of character that will take them far.
Hong and Tan have a condition called neurofibromatosis (NF), in which large tumours grow on the face. Most people associate NF with  Joseph "Elephant Man" Merrick,  an Englishman born in 1862. Merrick was treated as a freak most of his life and ended up as a sideshow attraction. He was befriended by a surgeon and became a permanent resident of London’s Whitechapel Hospital. He died at age 27.
When we met up with Tan, 28, at his home in a rented unit above a shophouse in Kampung Berjaya, Alor Setar, he had just woken up and was still drowsy. But pretty soon he was all smiles and opened up easily.

Brave heart: Tan Kia Khim before his surgery in 2006 in Guangzhou, China, to remove his face tumour.
 

“Life was just the usual, you just deal with it,” he said, when asked about his childhood days.
However, he remembered the bullying he endured in primary school. “They hit me with a ruler, pulled my hair, shot at me with rubber bands. They called me char siew pau (barbecued pork dumpling) and ghost.”
Children can be cruel and the taunts and bullying continued into secondary school.
“But there were a lot of students who were my friends and all of my teachers were nice to me, except one, who asked me what I would do after SPM since I didn’t have a brain and couldn’t think properly,” recalled Tan, whose parents run an “economy rice” stall at a coffeeshop.
Hong, 21, who also hails from Alor Setar, was more stoic in approach when we spoke to her at her single-storey terrace family home in Taman Bersatu, Simpang Empat, Kedah.
“In school there were a lot of naughty pupils who passed all kinds of remarks. I just ignored them. There’s no need to cry over it; it won’t solve any problems. It’s not like you can change anything.”

Tan during his kindergarten days. – Pictures by G.C. TAN and courtesy of Tan Kia Khim
 

She added that the teachers never knew about the teasing and she never thought of complaining to them.

Hope Comes
The year 2006 marked a turning point in their lives. Both were given the chance to have their tumours removed. Hong had a growth of about 3kg covering most of the left side of her face, including the left eye, most of the nose and mouth.
Tan’s tumour was relatively smaller, starting from the left eye, disfiguring the nose and pulling down the mouth.
Hong first attracted media attention after her SPM results came out in 2006. “Actually, my SPM results were not really fantastic, but they exceeded my expectations,” she said. She scored 1A in Mathematics, her favourite subject, a 3B, two 4Bs and a 5C.
One of the newspaper reports which featured Hong was sent to Prof Xu Ke Cheng, president of Fuda Cancer Hospital in Guangzhou, China, which has carried out many successful procedures on NF patients.
Prof Xu initiated contact and flew down in April, 2006, to assess her condition.
Prior to the visit, her parents, padi farmer Hong Wah and home-maker Goh Jit Yang were reluctant for her to undergo any operation.
“Doctors in Alor Setar and Penang had told us that the condition could not be treated or the operation would be highly risky, so why take the risk?” said Hong in an earlier interview.
Tan, too, concurred that doctors in Penang and Alor Setar had discouraged him from removing his tumour.
After speaking with Prof Xu, Hong and her family changed their minds and agreed to go ahead with the procedure to remove the tumour. At the press conference to announce this, a member of the press who knew of Tan’s case brought him along. He was excited to meet someone who had the same condition as him. As it turned out, Prof Xu had a quick look at Tan and said his tumour was more easily operable.
Tan had no hesitation about going through with the operation. “Why should I turn down the chance to look handsome?” he quipped, flashing a beaming smile.
Meanwhile, the Kedah Chinese Assembly Hall (KCAH) had initiated a donation campaign with the co-operation of the Chinese Press (and others like The Star) for the duo to be sent to Fuda. The collection raked in close to RM360,000 and in May 2006, Hong and Tan were flown to Guangzhou. The hospital had waived many of the charges and provided free room and board for the entourage. Tan was accompanied by his father while Hong’s mother kept her company.
In June of that year, both of them underwent surgery – Hong first followed by Tan the next day. Tan’s operation was done in two hours, while Hong’s was spread out over several months as her case was more complicated.
A team of 14 surgeons worked on her. It was apparently the biggest and most challenging operation in the history of the hospital.
One of the procedures undertaken was cryosurgery, a technique where extreme cold (below -160°C) was used to destroy tumours.
After the tumours were removed, both had to undergo plastic surgery to reconstruct parts of their faces.
Tan returned home in mid-July that year, while Hong stayed back for more follow-ups. Tan returned to Fuda in November for cosmetic surgery and both eventually flew home on Dec 12. In March 2007, both went back to the hospital for more follow-ups.

New Chapter
Hong’s tumour started out with a pretty big bump on her face, and grew over the years. At the age of six, she had some semblance of sight in her left eye which was not enveloped by the growth yet.
“Now I’m so glad that I don’t have to carry all that weight around. Before I could not even use a crash helmet but now I can. Oh, and I don’t have to wear loose T-shirts now,” she says with a big grin on her face.
Her mother seems to display symptoms of someone who has NF as she has small bumps and cafe-au-lait spots all over her face and body. Her father has misshapened legs, which are sometimes a sign of the condition.

Phases of life: Hong Siew Hui’s mother Goh Jit Yang looking at the scars on her face after surgery.-Pictures by G.C. TAN and courtesy of Hong Siew Hui
 

Hong is the youngest of four siblings. Her brother, Theng Yau, 24, has a small tumour on the right side of his neck. A few months ago, he had it surgically removed in Alor Setar.
As for Tan, his father has cafe-au-lait spots and a few bumps so chances are he has the condition, too. His mother and three younger siblings do not have any sign of the condition. Tan’s tumour developed when he was still a baby.
Hong now spends most of her time on her studies. She is a diploma student at Politeknik Sultan Abdul Halim (Polimas) in Jitra, and expects to complete her three-year accountancy course early next year.
“I have had no problems there. Everyone is my friend. In fact, I’ve just finished doing my practical at (KCAH president) Mr Cheng Lai Hock’s accounting office. It was good training for me,” she beamed.

Hong with her brother Theng Yau playing outside their house in Simpang Empat, Kedah, during their childhood days.-Pictures by G.C. TAN and courtesy of Hong Siew Hui
 

Tan is still working for the same understanding and caring employer (as he puts it). Before surgery, he was working as a coffee-shop assistant but his boss closed shop and opened up a mini-convenience store. Tan is an assistant manager of sorts at the store.
Some people have the knack of making friends and Tan is one of them. He proved so popular with the hospital staff and media in Guangzhou that they flew him back last year for press interviews that even took him to Beijing.
The gregarious and genial young man spends his free time hanging out with friends.
The future is looking bright for Tan and Hong as they look forward to Prof Xu’s visit to Alor Setar this Thursday to check on their progress. - The Star