'Lost' Actor Reveals Brain Damage Diagnosis
Evangeline Lilly shared that her recent concussion has led to brain damage and cognitive decline. In a video posted to social media, the Lost actress reveals that "almost every area in my brain is functioning at a decreased capacity."
Injury From Fainting Spell
Back in May 2025, Lilly fainted while at the beach and hit her head on a large boulder. Posting about the incident from the hospital, she shared short videos of her face injury that apparently was more than surface deep. "I fainted at the beach," her caption reads, "and fell face first into a boulder."
Now, Lilly is sharing more about her difficult road to recovery. "I'm entering into this new year, the Year of the Horse, with some bad news about my concussion," her most recent video starts off. After undergoing a series of brain scans following the incident, results confirmed that her traumatic brain injury from May had left lasting damage.
"Now my job is to get to the bottom of that with the doctors," Lilly's video continues, "and then embark on the hard work of fixing it, which I don’t look forward to because I feel like hard work is all I do."
Lilly's Health Struggles
Lilly has previously been open about struggling with unexplained blackouts since she was young, causing the Ant-Man star to faint at random moments. She claims that she had told doctors that "you won't find anything" when looking for the cause of her fainting spells. She has said, though, that her blackouts likely do not stem from epilepsy or hypoglycemia.
While her blackouts have mostly not caused any lasting bodily harm, her fall in May seems to have left lasting consequences. "Comforting to know my cognitive decline isn't just peri-menopause, discomforting to know what an uphill battle it will be to try to reverse the deficiencies," Lilly wrote in her Instagram caption.
Continuing to find a silver lining, Lilly shares in her Instagram video that she's had "the calmest, most restful Christmas holiday I have had." Friends and co-stars shared their love in the comments, including Michelle Pfeiffer, who plays Lilly's mother in the Marvel Universe. "You are a warrior," she wrote, "Nothing - not even this will defeat you my friend." Lilly responded back "Thanks, Mama."