Evangeline Lilly Shares Shocking Health Update With Fans Following Concussion

In the early aughts, Evangeline Lilly became a household name thanks to her role as Kate in Lost. And while she's had plenty of roles over the years that have garnered her additional acclaim — like in the films The Hurt Locker, The Hobbit Series, and Ant-Man — Lilly tells fans that she has spent 2025 dealing with her most challenging project yet: recovery.

That's because the actress was severely injured during the summer in a freak accident, which she shared about on Instagram.

What happened to Evangeline Lilly? According to a series of posts from the Lost alum, a childhood affliction may have contributed to a summer accident that left her with cognitive defects after she experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

As a result, Lilly is now sharing her story with her fans to help raise awareness about what is going on and to keep her fans in the loop as she tries to recover from the devastating incident that may have altered her life forever.

The 46-year-old Canadian actress appeared in a video shared to her Instagram on Jan. 2, 2025, where she gave her followers an update about her health.

"Verdict's in...I do have brain damage from my TBI," she explained in the video, where she remained upbeat and hopeful. "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."

A TBI is a type of traumatic brain injury caused by sudden impact.

A TBI can be caused by a blow or impact, according to the Cleveland Clinic. TBIs can range from mild to severe, and they can change everything about the way your brain works. This can include cognitive thoughts, as well as emotions, which can cause:

• Memory loss
• Mood swings
• Behavior changes
• Confusion
• Headaches

In the most severe cases, TBIs can also result in death. Treatment will vary depending on how severe the injury was, and it can include surgery, medication, and sometimes just rest.

Lilly has been pretty open and honest with her fans about what happened. In fact, she even posted about the TBI the day that she was first injured, posting a short video on her Instagram on May 30, 2025, that showed her badly scratched and bleeding face. "I fainted at the beach," she captioned the clip, noting that she fell "face first" into a boulder when she blacked out.

At the hospital, she says the doctors spent a lot of time trying to figure out what caused the fainting spell to begin with.

However, The Guardian notes that it doesn't look like the doctors have gotten to the bottom of that, especially since Lilly has been dealing with these fainting spells since she was a child. And while medical reasons have been ruled out for the episodes, it seems like Lilly has attributed the frequent fainting to being overtired and needing a break.

Hopefully, she's able to take some time for herself and start healing so that she can make a full recovery from this scary accident.