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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