On the morning of July 6, Victor and Libby Boyce explained that Cameron died in sleep from SUDEP, a condition they hadn’t heard about before their son’s tragic passing.
What We Know:
- SUDEP stands for sudden unexplained death in epilepsy. During the episode, in a preinterview, both parents burst into tears when talking about their son. The reason why they made an appearance, they said, was to prevent another family from experiencing a loss like their own. Libby said, “Every day is very hard”.
- The Descendants star had his first seizure at the age of 16 and after suffering his second seizure at 17 he was diagnosed with epilepsy. Libby explained that after he was diagnosed, Cameron went on medication to prevent seizures. She also added that they never realized that their son could pass away from the seizure itself. The only time they worried about him is if he had a seizure unexpectedly which could result in him hitting his head or drowning.
- Cameron only suffered from five seizures in his lifetime. They only occurred while he was sleeping, and the worst he experienced his mom said, “is he would bite his tongue and he would wake up with a headache”.
- Victor recalled his last moment with his son; they had enjoyed a night out. He said, “we were sitting outside joking and laughing like we always do…It was just a really fun night”. The next morning Victor got a horrible call from Cameron’s roommate. “It was like all of a sudden I was in a cloud…I was just … everything just went white.” He went on to say, “I’m not supposed to outlive my son.”
The Boyces created the Cameron Boyce Foundation to provide support to young people through causes that were important to him, including epilepsy awareness.
