March 29, 2024

Recently, in the ED, I was seeing a patient who was left with something of a stammer/stutter after a prior stroke.

It was kind of a long history, and probably longer for the patient, who had to work very hard to be understood through their unwanted speech impediment.

Inexplicably, when I walked out of the room I started stuttering; I wasn’t trying to make light of the patients’ problem, and I had to stop talking for a few moments before I could speak in my normal cadence (and while in the patients’ room I was speaking normally as well).  It was super-strange, like my brain heard the new cadence and said ‘oh, this is how we do it’.  Awful.

It was embarrassing, and weird.  Fortunately the patient didn’t hear it, and I apologized to the staff that did.  I have no idea why my mouth/brain combo picked that anomaly to repeat.  Strange.

Anyone else have this?

13 thoughts on “The most embarrasing thing I’ve done in a while

  1. I’ve never done it with a stutter, but I have a habit of unconsciously picking up accents if I’m around someone for some time (it’s taken as little as two hours). If I make an effort to really pay attention I won’t do it and I’m always worried people think I’m making fun of them.

  2. Never had that experience however I have always had a stutter problem that is accented since I had a stroke. When I am tired I have to pick my words carefully and slowly. I had one patient who thought I was drunk until I later explained to him I had my own medical problems.

  3. I can’t remember doing it with a stutter, but have mimicked accents before – both regional US and foreign. I have been told that when I speak what little Spanish, Vietnamese or German I know that I sound very nearly like a native speaker.

    Maybe you’d sound like a native speaker of foreign languages as well. Probably not a bad thing for an ER doc…

  4. All the time. Had a geri pt a few weeks ago, originally from southern AL, with an almost completely inscrutable accent, and after five minutes began to unconsciously mimic him. And, horrendously, once inadvertently whispered back to a pt with layrngeal cancer…

  5. Yeah, I started using the ubiquitous Canadian “eh?” after a few drinks with an Ottowa-based USAR team.

  6. I too have noticed I will pick up local accents when speaking, and not only the accent, but word choice as well. I suspect whatever drives this caused you to inadvertenty mimic the stutterer.

  7. Society mocks stutterers by immediatly mocking the stutter. You subconsciously picked up this social cue.

  8. I unconsciously engage my inner mimic extensively. It gets worse the wider range of language/accent/region/cultures I get exposed too. I can no longer “hear” UK accents except in the most extreme, and eastern european/slavic syntax patterns no longer ring error bells. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad trait.

  9. I take on accents. My husband described me as an accent whore once, pick up whatever accent is around…

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