Bruce Willis Seen For First Time Since Heartbreaking Dementia Diagnosis, See The Video
A YouTube video clip shows Bruce Willis walking around Santa Monica in the first video footage of the actor since his dementia diagnosis.
Last year, action movie fans were crushed to learn that Bruce Willis was retiring from acting due to a terrible condition called aphasia, which led to his no longer being able to communicate verbally. His condition has since worsened, and in February, news broke that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). In a new YouTube video, however, he was seen out walking in Santa Monica with two of his friends, marking the first time he has been caught on film since the FTD diagnosis.
Bruce Willis doesn’t look much different than any other 67-year-old in the short, 10-second clip, which has been reassuring to fans who have been devastated by losing him from the big screen. His condition came as a huge shock to people all around the world, and fans (not to mention his loved ones) are still coming to terms with it.
One positive thing that has come out of this terrible situation, however, is that it has raised more awareness of two medical conditions that previously didn’t receive much media attention. Bruce Willis’ aphasia diagnosis led to a huge outpouring of support, but also a huge surge in lookups for the term on search engines like Google.
According to Johns Hopkins, aphasia is a condition that “leaves a person unable to communicate effectively with others” because it involves damage to the language center of the brain. A person with aphasia can no longer comprehend nor express themselves effectively with language, making it an extremely trying disorder. Aphasia is a bit of a mysterious condition, but researchers say that it can be caused by things like a head injury, a stroke, an infection, a brain tumor, or dementia.
Bruce Willis’ recent diagnosis provides a bit of clarity about what caused the aphasia. It took some time, but it does seem that there is finally a clear reason for his aphasia, and that is frontotemporal dementia. “Unfortunately,” said a widely shared statement by his family, which includes his ex-wife Demi Moore, “challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.”
Johns Hopkins defines frontotemporal dementia as “a group of disorders that occur when nerve cells in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain are lost.” The lobes in one’s brain get smaller, which can lead to changes in one’s personality, movement, and behavior in addition to language, the issue that Bruce Willis seems to be struggling with the most.
FTD has two common types: frontal variant FTD, which more strongly affects one’s personality, actions, and behavior, and primary progressive aphasia, which includes two subtypes related to language. With one subtype, the person with FTD has more trouble speaking, and with the other, he or she has more trouble understanding the words that are spoken to them. Bruce Willis’ family didn’t say specifically in their statement which subtype he has.
Bruce Willis was a strong believer in speaking out about things that matter, though, and his family is making sure that his diagnosis, no matter how heartbreaking it is, can shine some light on these issues and help drum up support for others like him.
