It’s been almost five months since Cameron Boyce tragically passed away, and there’s not a day that goes by that fans don’t miss him. The Disney actor was only 20 years old when he died on July 6, 2019, after having a seizure in his sleep. He suffered from a medical condition called epilepsy, and now, his parents have shared some new heartbreaking details on his health battle.
Victor and Libby Boyce sat down with NBCLA in hopes to bring awareness to SUDEP — Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy.
“His cause of death was Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy,” the Descendants star’s dad explained, with his mom adding that SUDEP is when “people pass away from an epileptic seizure and they’re otherwise healthy. There’s no preexisting condition.”
“We didn’t know anything about SUDEP until the medical examiner who did the autopsy on our son told us what it was,” she continued. “There’s not enough education out there about epilepsy and there’s not enough research. We feel it’s really important and that he would want us to be getting this information out to the public and helping others.”
As stated by the Epilepsy Foundation, the neurological disorder is the fourth most common and affects people of all ages. Epilepsy is characterized by unpredictable seizures and can sadly cause other health issues, as well.
“Cameron was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was 17-years-old. He had a total of five seizures in the time between being 17 and when he passed. He had his first seizure when he had some friends sleeping over. It was early in the morning and they witnessed him [seizing] and they came running into our room and we went in and he was really out of it. We didn’t know what had happened. We called 911 and they came and got him and told us it was a seizure,” Libby recalled. “He was quickly better after the ER visit. He was fine, but we went to a neurologist to do some more testing. There was nothing on his MRI. There was nothing — no test showed anything.”
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