A Georgia teen who survived a near-fatal concussion awoke from a coma speaking fluent Spanish, WSB radio reports.
Last month, 16-year-old Reuben Nsemoh was kicked in the head while playing goalie for his travel soccer team, the station reports. The teen suffered a severe concussion, his third concussion in his short life.
According to WSB Radio, his coach, Bruno Kalonji, said that it was the worst concussion he had ever seen in one of his players.
“The ambulance came and they said he was having seizures because he might have bleeding in his brain,” Kalonji told the station.
The injury was so severe that Reuben was in a coma for three days. However, when he finally awoke, the Brookwood High School sophomore could not speak English but instead was communicating in Spanish.
“My friends would always talk to me in Spanish and would teach me,” Reuben told the station.
According to WSB, Reuben could never really speak Spanish before, but now he was doing so fluently. Reuben thinks it was his subconscious remembering the language.
“I wasn’t perfect, but my brother is a really fluent Spanish speaker. So he kind of inspired me with that, too," he said.
According to Fox Sports, as Reuben's English has returned, his fluency in Spanish has faded, although he still continues to speak the second language.
Despite suffering the scary injury, Reuben says he hopes to get back to playing the sport he loves once he is fully recovered.
“It’s my passion. It’s the one thing I want to do for my career,” he said.
However, his coach told the station that the teen would not be doing so on his team without a helmet. Kalonji told the station that he thinks all goalies should be required to wear the protective gear.
“This can happen even at practice. And if kids already have two concussions or three, it’s recommended that they wear one,” Kalonji said.
The teen has not yet returned to school as he continues to recover from the injury, and it is still unclear when or if he'll be able to play again.
"Sometimes I daze out," the teen said. "Sometimes I feel like I'm not here, but I am."
Reuben's family has created a GoFundMe to help with his medical expenses.
Read more at WSB and Fox Sports.