Lachlan Connors Becomes Musical Genius After Hitting His Noggin (PHOTO)

Concussion Causes Boy to Lose Lacrosse Career and Awakens Music Talent

Denver, Colorado – Lachlan Conners loved the game of lacrosse and has aspirations to play the sport professionally. In fact, nothing else seemed to matter to the young boy and that included music. All that changed when he suffered a concussion on the lacrosse field.

He escaped serious brain injury, but he began to experience epileptic seizures after taking hits on the field. Finally, his physician told him his lacrosse playing days were over. In fact, he was told that any contact sports were out of the question for him.

It was not long after that when Conners noticed that he could pick up a musical instrument and play it by ear. Well, point in fact, he can play 13 musical instruments at this point.

His mother acknowledges that he seemed to have no talent for music whatsoever when he was young. However, she is thrilled with his new talent and finds it deeply satisfying to hear him play music.

Before, “He really had no talent,” his mother Elsie Hamilton said told CBS.

But now, “When Lachlan plays it’s absolutely beautiful.”

His physician, Dr. Spyridon Papadopoulos, believes that when the brain suffered trauma it rewired in such a way as to tap into a musical talent which lay dormant in him.

Dr. Spyridon Papadopoulos told CBS that the concussions appear to have turned on a new part of Connors’ brain.

“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,” Papadopoulos said. “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.”

So which instruments can he play? The list includes the Scottish & Irish bagpipes, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, piano, harmonica, and karimbas.

Connors, now a junior is now enamored with playing instruments.

“Music is the thing that gets me up in the morning,” he said.

The condition of suddenly developing a talent – musical, artistic or mathematical – is called acquired savant syndrome and is believed to occur when the right brain compensates for an injury on the left brain.

Last year, another Denver man, Derek Amato, said that following a concussion after divig into a shallow pool, he could play eight instruments even though he’d never had a lesson in his life.

On The Web:
Teenager Credits Musical Talent to Head Injury
http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=252283

Teenager Credits Musical Talent to Head Injury
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/teenager-credits-musical-talent-head-injury/story?id=20980180

Teen Credits Concussion With Giving Him His Musical Talents
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/11/20/teen-credits-concussion-with-giving-him-his-musical-talents/

Teen Lachlan Connors: Concussion Turned Me Into Musical Genius
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/22/lachlan-connors-music_n_4324245.html

Teen becomes a musical genius who can play 13 instruments after suffering concussion in lacrosse game – even though he can’t read music
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2511439/Denver-teen-Lachlan-Connors-musical-genius-suffering-concussion.html