It’s been six months since Cameron Boyce tragically passed away, and now, his parents are opening up about the moment they found out about their son’s devastating death.
“On July 5, 2019, Cameron, [Cameron’s sister] Maya, [Cameron’s mom] Libby and I went to dinner. We were sitting outside joking and laughing like we always do. It was just a really fun night,” his dad, Victor, recalled during an interview with The Doctors. “In the morning, I get a call from [Cameron’s] roommate, and then he told me. It was like all of a sudden I was in a cloud, like everything just went white. I’m just losing my mind in the parking lot. I tell my daughter. We’re both screaming and crying.”
“I still didn’t believe it. There was no way this was true. It was just a nightmare,” he continued. “I pulled up to his house, there were cop cars all over the place.”
The Disney actor was only 20 years old when he died after having a seizure in his sleep. He suffered from a medical condition called epilepsy.
“Cameron died of [Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy]. He was sleeping, and he just never woke up,” the Jessie star’s dad explained. “The first time I heard that term was two months after Cameron passed when the medical examiner told me that’s what he died of.”
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 cause other health issues.
“Cameron had his first seizure when he was 16 and a half. It was in his sleep. It was a night when he had two friends sleeping over and they witnessed it,” his mom said. “About a year later, when he was 17, he had another seizure. At that point, he was diagnosed with epilepsy. He only ever had five seizures in his life.”
Victor revealed that because the Descendants actor had seizures so infrequently, they didn’t think the medical condition was going to be debilitating for him.
“He always had them in his sleep and the worst thing that would happen was he would bite his tongue and he would wake up with a headache,” Victor added.
Cameron’s fans, costars, friends and family are still heartbroken over the tragic loss.
“I feel as though I’m in a tunnel. The tunnel will always be there. I will never be out of the tunnel. So, if people say, ‘You come out the other side’ — you do not come out the other side from this kind of a loss, ever,” Libby shared, with Victor adding as he fought back tears, “I am not supposed to outlive my son.”
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