Ski accident left woman with phenomenally-advanced mental abilities

A young woman has revealed how an accident during a ski vacation left her with phenomenally advanced mental abilities after she developed an incredibly rare condition known as acquired savant syndrome. 

In an essay written for xoJane, the anonymous woman recounts the day that she received her life-changing injury, which took place during a family ski vacation at an unnamed location during the winter break of her senior year in college.

'About halfway down the hill, at a speed that was definitely too fast, on a hill that was turning icy quick, I caught an edge and went flying,' she explained.

'I blacked out when I hit. And the only reason I know this is because when I came to my brother was crouched next to me and before he had been at the top of the hill.'

The woman added that, because she didn't experience any long-term effects, such as dizziness or nausea, she continued to ski the day away, despite experiencing a headache and a searing shoulder pain - which she would later discover to be a severe dislocation and a broken collarbone.

Putting off a hospital visit for two days, she was eventually diagnosed with a mild concussion and received a 'hardy scolding from the doctor'.

However, in the weeks following the accident, her vision, perception and her memory of things began to change drastically.

'It was like I could see, though not in a literal sense because I was still having issues with vertigo, as well as this weird disconnect between what I was seeing and what my brain was processing,' she said. 'I could remember everywhere, like flicking through the pages of a book. Every place I had ever been, but specifically the buildings.'

She confessed that she tried to ignore the symptoms for several weeks, however after waking up on day with an incredibly painful migraine - similar to the one famously suffered by KCBS 2 TV reporter Serene Branson live on air - she was submitted to the hospital to undergo further testing.

But far from being an easy case to diagnose, doctors were left baffled by her symptoms, and she quickly became the new obsession for all the neurologists in the building. She explained that she could not only remember every place she'd been with 'ridiculous accuracy', but could also draw perfect diagrams of every single structure she had ever seen or visited.

'The thing I kept bringing up was my memory,' she said. 'I kept telling my neurologist that I could remember too much, it wasn't right.'

After more than one year - and hundreds of tests - she was diagnosed with acquired savant syndrome.

The condition is an extremely rare one, with only around 50 reported cases in the world. But while most of these are widely reported, very little is known about the exact cause of the condition.

A woman with no artistic ability in England suddenly became a remarkably-talented artist after falling down the stairs; a tone-deaf teenager in Denver morphed into a musical genius after a tumble during a lacrosse game; and a college drop-out from Washington injured during a mugging became a mathematical genius overnight. 

The latter of these cases, a man named Jason Padgett has already written a book about his experience and ability, titled Struck By Genius.

While many of these people end up foraying into a specific field which allows them to better utilize their new-found gifts, this anonymous writer claims she has yet to take professional advantage of her abilities, graduating with 'a degree in something so far away from art and architecture it was almost jarring', and currently working a 'normal' desk job.

However she admits that this may one day change.

'I’m definitely, constantly mulling over the idea of quitting and going into drafting and design. At least I know I’d be good at it,' she wrote.

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter