Heartbreaking Details Found In Cameron Boyce's Autopsy Report
The news of Cameron Boyce's sudden death at age 20 left his fans, co-stars, friends, and family members heartbroken. But Boyce's autopsy report provided a modicum of closure by offering some answers about his cause of death.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00The news of Cameron Boyce's sudden death at age 20 left his fans, co-stars, friends, and
00:06family members heartbroken. But Boyce's autopsy report provided a modicum of closure by offering
00:12some answers about his cause of death.
00:14Before Boyce's death in July 2019, there were no signs that anything was amiss. At the time,
00:20he was gearing up for the premiere of his Disney Channel movie, The Descendants 3, later
00:25that month. His co-star Dove Cameron took the news of Boyce's death especially hard.
00:30And Cameron, even when he was around, is the hardest person to put into words, you know?"
00:36Boyce shared a final Instagram post a day prior to his death, and now it serves as a
00:41memorial to the young star. It's a black-and-white photo of himself in profile that was taken
00:46during an interview with i-D.
00:48He was very passionate about his work, about his family, about his friends, about life."
00:55Boyce spent part of that last evening having dinner with his family. During an interview
00:59with Good Morning America, his father, Victor Boyce, shared,
01:03"...I mean, there was no way to know in hours my son would be dead. Like, it was just staggeringly
01:08crazy and horrible."
01:10When Boyce died, his family released a statement
01:17saying that he had suffered a seizure caused by epilepsy. The autopsy report confirmed
01:21as much and provided further details about his death.
01:25On Instagram, Boyce's father shared a final photo of the actor that was snapped during
01:29their family outing. Hours later, Boyce fell asleep and suffered a deadly seizure.
01:35One sad detail included in the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's findings is that
01:40Boyce's roommates tried to save his life. Perhaps because it was early in the afternoon
01:44and they hadn't seen him emerge from his room, according to the report, they decided
01:49to check on him. At the time, they were about to head out the door. What they likely expected
01:55to be a quick check-in and goodbye took an awful turn when they realized something was
01:59wrong. They called for help and tried to resuscitate Boyce by performing CPR while waiting for
02:05an ambulance to arrive. But at 2.35 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
02:10Boyce's official cause of death was sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, or SUDEP. An
02:15epilepsy expert, Dr. Oren Davinsky, told The New York Times that epilepsy sufferers like
02:21Boyce are more likely to have fatal seizures if they happen while sleeping. Davinsky further
02:26explained that the respiratory center of the brain can stop working during a bad seizure,
02:31and the lack of oxygen can be deadly.
02:34Boyce's autopsy report revealed that he was taking the medication levotiracetam to prevent
02:39seizures, but described his epilepsy as non-traumatic. Boyce's autopsy report revealed that he was
02:45still alive at midnight on the night of his death. This detail seemingly came from his
02:49father, who told ABC News,
02:51"'We were texting back and forth up until 12.30, and somewhere between the last text
02:56he sent me and the morning he was gone.'"
02:58"'We were texting about the Lakers.'"
03:00Boyce's autopsy report also touched on his medical history, indicating that he'd previously
03:05experienced seizures.
03:07"'He only ever had five seizures in his lifetime.'"
03:11Victor added that they were never too concerned about their son's epilepsy affecting his quality
03:15of life because he so rarely had seizures, and when he did, he quickly recovered from
03:20them.
03:21Now, Victor and Libby are working to raise awareness of SUDEP through the charitable
03:26organization they created to honor their son's legacy, the Cameron Boyce Foundation. In a
03:31May 2024 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, the couple revealed that the foundation
03:36had raised $1.5 million to fund epilepsy research. But for them, educating others about
03:42the condition is what's really important.
03:45According to Libby, she and Victor had no idea that Cameron's seizures were more dangerous
03:49because he had them when he was sleeping.
03:52"'Actually, when you have seizures in your sleep, it's a little bit more risky, and so
03:57we were not well-informed.'"