Tommy McHugh

Tommy McHugh (1949 – 19 September 2012) was a British artist and poet. In his early life, McHugh was a builder and was also involved in youth crimes. When he was 51, he suffered a stroke on both sides of his brain that resulted in two burst blood vessels. He was in a coma for a week and acquired savant syndrome.

Injury

In January 2001, McHugh attempted to rapidly evacuate his bowels due to a knock on the toilet door. The sudden pressure led to an artery being severed in the frontal and temporal lobes of his brain, causing him to haemorrhage.[1][2]

While relearning after his stroke, McHugh started to paint and write poetry relentlessly, pursuing creative work for many hours per day. He also experienced an identity crisis which was most likely the motivation for his artistic outputs.[3]

In an attempt to figure out the cause of his sudden personality change, McHugh wrote to and worked with two neuroscientists: Alice Flaherty from Harvard Medical School and Mark Lythgoe from University College London. A paper has been published about their discoveries.[4]

Death

McHugh died in 2012 from cancer.[5]

Before his death, McHugh said that his strokes "have given [him] 11 years of a magnificent adventure that nobody could have expected."[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Tommy McHugh An Accidental Genius - Extraordinary People". 9 July 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  2. ↑ "Stroke turns builder into artist who cannot rest". The Daily Telegraph. 2004-06-21. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-06-08.
  3. ↑ "BBC NEWS - Health - Creative side unlocked by stroke". 21 June 2004.
  4. ↑ M.F. Lythgoe, T.A. Pollak, M. Kalmas, M. de Haan, W. Chong (2005) Obsessive, prolific artistic output following subarachnoid hemorrhage Neurology. vol 64: 397-398 see http://www.mlythgoe.com/16TommyMcHugh.htm
  5. ↑ Guest, Linda Foo (25 September 2012). "Birkenhead dad whose brain haemmorhage unlocked talent for art loses cancer battle".
  6. ↑ Thomson, Helen (10 May 2013). "Mindscapes: Stroke turned ex-con into rhyming painter". Retrieved 10 February 2017.
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