Imagine you weren't too
smart,loved to party,a college drop-out working at your dad's furniture store
and all of a sudden,after being mugged, you woke up a math Genuis and became so
obsessed with math and physics. This is
the story of 31 year old Jason Padgett
who has been diagnosed as one of only 40 with acquired savant syndrome, in
which once-normal people become skilled in math, art or music after a brain
injury.
According to
Mailonline..It all started the night of September 13, 2002 when Padgett went
out to a karaoke bar near his home and was mugged.
Two men attacked him
from behind and punched him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.
At the hospital, he was
treated for a bruised kidney but released the same night.
The next morning,
Padgett woke up and found that his vision had changed to include details he
never noticed before.He started the tap in his bathroom and noticed 'lines
emanating out perpendicularly from the
flow.'
'At first, I was
startled and worried for myself, but it was so beautiful that I just stood in
my slippers and stared,' Padgett told the New York Post.
Padgett stopped going
to work and spent all of his time studying math and physics, focusing on
fractals, which are repeated geometric patterns. Even though he showed no
talent for art before, he started drawing fractals in extreme detail -
sometimes taking weeks to finish the work.
But there was also a
downside to his new talents. While he was once outgoing, Padgett turned
introverted and started to spend all of his time at home, covering up his
windows with blankets and refusing visitors.
He became obsessed with
germs and would wash his hands until they were red, and wouldn't even hug his
own daughter until she washed her hands as well.
Padgett thought he was
going crazy, but hope came after watching a BBC documentary on Daniel Tammet,
an autistic savant.
There are currently
just 40 people in the world who have been diagnosed with the syndrome, becoming
seemingly smarter after a brain injury.
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