Celine Dion suffers a scary seizure in new documentary footage amid stiff person syndrome battle
Celine Dion included an incredibly vulnerable moment in her new documentary, “I Am: Celine Dion,” in which she suffers a terrifying seizure for several minutes.
The scene begins with the Grammy-winning songstress’s doctor conducting an evaluation, as she had been experiencing spasms due to stiff person syndrome, a rare and progressive neurological disorder.
“Part of the disease is that as soon as you go into a contraction, sometimes … the signal to release it, doesn’t understand, so it ends up just staying in a contracted position,” sports medicine therapist Terrill Lobo explains.
After he has her lie down on a massage table, Dion, 56, continues spasming, which Lobo warns could “lead to a crisis.”
Shortly after, the “My Heart Will Go On” singer starts to go into a full-blown seizure, and the doctor calls in another member of his medical team to bring in Valium, a medication that treats the nervous system.
Dion can be heard at this time groaning in pain as she shakes while face down.
When Lobo goes to lift her on her side, the “All by Myself” singer starts whimpering and crying.
In one shocking moment, Dion appears wide-eyed and unable to move on her own.
However, she is still conscious at this point because she is able to slightly signal that she is alert by squeezing one of the medical expert’s hands.
Tears then flow out of Dion’s eyes as she continues to spasm. When Lobo asks her to try to “calm down,” the “That’s the Way It Is” singer starts crying and then sobbing even louder.
After administering two doses of a nasal spray, Dion starts to come out of the seizure, but the doctor says if she hadn’t, they would’ve had to rush her to a hospital.
Once Dion is seemingly back to her old self, she tells everyone in the room that incidents like that make her feel “so embarrassed.”
“I don’t know how to express it, like, it’s just … you know, like, to not have control of yourself?” she asks.
Lobo explains that what likely triggered the seizure was the fact that she had been in the studio singing shortly before and her brain “was overstimulated.”
“Well, what am I gonna do?” the “Power of Love” singer then asks. “… If I can’t get stimulated by what I love, and then I’m gonna go onstage and, like, you’re gonna put the pulse oximeter on me and you’re gonna turn me on my back?”
Lobo responds, “It’s scary, I know. It’s hard. This is not the end of your journey — we all know that. But this is always that step on that journey.”
Dion and Lobo then conclude by her singing Wyn Starks’s “Who I Am,” an R&B and soul song that includes lyrics like, “I’ve been closing the door / All my life, held it in but not anymore / Got two feet on the floor / This is it, I’m stronger than ever before.”
In the emotional Prime Video doc, which premiered Tuesday, Dion reiterates what she’s said many times since revealing her stiff person syndrome diagnosis in December 2022: she wants to get back onstage.
Because of her illness, the “Because You Loved Me” singer had to cancel tour dates in Europe, postpone her Las Vegas residency in October 2021 and cancel her North American tour months later.
However, in recent months, Dion has shown signs that she is on the mend and perhaps closer to performing again.
The “A New Day Has Come” singer made her first public appearance in years at the 2024 Grammys in February, and most recently, looked glamorous in a chic Dior outfit for her documentary’s premiere.
She said amid tears in her doc, “If I can’t run, I’ll walk. If I can’t walk, I’ll crawl. But I won’t stop.”
“I Am: Celine Dion” is available to stream on Prime Video.
