{"id":387016,"date":"2026-01-04T05:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/387016\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T05:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:21:10","slug":"canadian-actress-evangeline-lilly-has-traumatic-brain-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/387016\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly has traumatic brain injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Canadian actress and ‘Lost’ star blacked out on a beach in Hawaii last May and smashed her face open on a rock.<\/p>\n

Published Jan 03, 2026 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 3\u00a0hours ago \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 3 minute read<\/p>\n

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\"CanadianCanadian actress Evangeline Lilly attends the “Ant-Man and The Wasp Quantumania” world premiere at Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, Calif., Feb. 6, 2023. Photo by Jesse Grant \/Getty ImagesArticle content<\/p>\n

Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly shared a health update to begin the new year, but the news wasn\u2019t positive.<\/p>\n

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The Lost star revealed she suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) after blacking out on a beach in Hawaii last May and smashing her face open on a rock.<\/p>\n

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Lilly, 46, said a lot of her fans had asked how she was doing and wanted to know her test results for the brain scans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s late on January 1, the first day of 2026, and I\u2019m entering into this new year \u2014 the year of the horse \u2014 with some bad news about my concussion,\u201d she said in an Instagram video shared Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results came back from the scans, and almost every area of my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity. So, I do have brain damage from the TBI and possibly other factors going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lilly said the job now is to get to the bottom of the diagnosis with her doctors and do the hard work on healing fully from the brain injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich I don\u2019t look forward to because I feel like hard work is all I do,\u201d she chuckled. \u201cBut that\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her cognitive decline following the injury has helped slow down her life and have a more restful end of the year, noting that the Christmas holiday was the most calmest since having children 14 years ago.<\/p>\n

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\u201c(I\u2019m) feeling extraordinarily grateful and blessed to be able to play one more day, one more year, on this beautiful living planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In July, Lilly said she had dental surgery and saw a brain specialist in Hawaii.<\/p>\n

However, the actress had been seeking answers for months to explain issues her cognitive decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cComforting to know my cognitive decline isn\u2019t just peri-menopause, discomforting to know what an uphill battle it will be to try to reverse the deficiencies,\u201d she captioned the video.<\/p>\n

Lilly revealed her brain injury May 30 on Instagram<\/a> and wrote in detail on her Substack page<\/a> about fainting spells she first began experiencing as a child and which continued into adulthood.<\/p>\n

\"Canadian Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly shared these images of her face after she fainted and blacked out on a beach in Hawaii last May. Photo by Evangeline Lilly \/Instagram<\/p>\n

Her doctor believed it was hypoglycemia after ruling out epilepsy.<\/p>\n

Other health issues came up and her physician began doing more blood work. Hypoglycemia was then ruled out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was making me become so cognitively checked out that the doctors thought I might have epilepsy as a child?\u201d she wrote. \u201cWhat was causing me to faint periodically throughout my adult life?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lilly said a nurse at the hospital where she was being treated for her facial injury told her that most patients who faint and black out are never given a medical diagnosis and \u201clive in the mystery of not knowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Lilly says she has a spiritual answer to explain her lifelong health struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have come to believe that this \u2018checking out\u2019 is a result of my little soul reaching her limit of what she feels she can cope with in this life, and she \u2018leaves the building\u2019, so to speak. Or \u2018leaves the meat suit\u2019 might be a better way of putting it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said the fainting spells are her brain\u2019s way of telling her to slow down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my conclusion, after enough of these episodes and enough medical testing to rule out different factors, that my soul longs to return. That when she has had enough, when the pain becomes too great, the stresses beyond overwhelming, the shattered idealism crushing, my soul exits my body and returns to pure spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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