Severe concussions transform young boy into musical prodigy

Tuesday, November 26, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: musical prodigy, severe concussions, young boy

(NaturalNews) It was an injury-turned-miracle situation for Lachlan Connors, a junior at Kent Denver High School in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado, the day he was knocked down during lacrosse practice and suffered a concussion. CBS Denver reports that the young man, who had previously not had a musical bone in his body, suddenly developed the ability to play with proficiency as many as 13 instruments due to the brain injury, an inspiring story with amazing implications for how the brain heals itself.

Lachlan reportedly grew up playing sports and had dreams of becoming a professional lacrosse player. His mother says that, at an early age, he was not even able to finish the tune to basic songs like "Mary Had A Little Lamb," let alone possess any sort of mastery in musical performance. But everything changed in an instant the day Lachlan hit the ground during practice while playing with his recreational lacrosse league.

"I fell backwards and hit the back of my head on the ground," he recalled to reporters. "I remember getting up and feeling really dazed. I didn't really understand something bad had happened."

Not long after, Lachlan's behavior began to change, prompting his parents to bring him in for a visit to the family doctor. The boy was released upon evaluation and told he could resume playing lacrosse. But after several more serious hits during practice, Lachlan had to be rushed to the hospital where he remained for several weeks due to a bout of epileptic seizures that ensued.

"He started to hallucinate and had these mini-hallucinations," stated Elsie Hamilton, Lachlan's mother, to CBS Denver.

It was around this time, after he was released from the hospital, that Lachlan suddenly transformed into what can only be described as a musical prodigy. Since doctors had already advised him not to play any more contact sports, Lachlan was now free to pursue his newfound love of music, which suddenly came naturally to him despite the fact that he had never been formally trained and had no concept of how to read music.

Lachlan now plays 13 instruments proficiently, thanks to his concussions

Today, Lachlan is proficient at playing the piano by ear and can also play the guitar, the mandolin, the ukelele and both Scottish and Irish bagpipes, as well as a handful of other instruments. And while experts cannot say for sure that the concussions were responsible, they do hypothesize that Lachlan's brain somehow rewired itself during the healing process.

"The thought is just a theory -- that this was a talent laying latent in his brain and somehow was uncovered by his brain rewiring after the injury," says Dr. Spyridon Papadopoulos, the boy's doctor, as quoted by CBS Denver. "Clearly something happened in his brain and his brain had to recover from injury and change happened. And change may have uncovered this ability no one knew he had."

Lachlan agrees, having told reporters that he is grateful for the change and that music is what now gets him up out of bed every morning.

"I honestly think something got rewired," he stated. "Something just changed, and thank God it did."

You can watch Lachlan in action playing his instruments here:
http://denver.cbslocal.com.

Sources for this article include:

http://denver.cbslocal.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

http://www.theepochtimes.com