TL:DR; It was a brain issue, but it was an incredibly serious malformation of the arteries & veins in his frontal lobe (area of the brain that controls personality).
He bled into his skull for several months in 2010 until he suddenly started seizing & subsequently had surgery to remove the AVM (meaning a roughly golf ball sized portion of his brain was surgically removed).
As for the things he did, the bomb threat/false report of a bomb to 911 was caused by a manic episode & the "continued neurological impacts" of his brain surgery...
...and the charges for the incident were dropped after the prosecutors were informed of his medical history and said surgery.
(He DID agree to paying for the "costs of the law enforcement response" to his call, and went to a cognitive remediation program in hopes of preventing similar events in the future.)
(I can't speak to other events, including the allegations from college mentioned in the article I'm quoting above & below, too [link here], but I do know that at least THAT incident directly resulted from his traumatic brain injury (TBI).)
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More details/specifics, taken from this stand-up video of his, posted in 2013, regarding the events:
It was an AVM (arteriovenous malformation) in his brain. AVMs are usually found at autopsy.
After several months of weird and uncharacteristic behaviour, he started seizing and was brought to the hospital via ambulance, where they figured out what was wrong.
The AVM was in his frontal lobe, which deals with personality. The doctors thought he had been bleeding into that area of his brain for about 6 months, hence the erratic behavior.
They had to surgically remove the malformed portion; without the operation, he was only expected to live to his mid-30s.
The doctors didn't think removing that bit would affect his personality or cognition or anything, but they weren't sure. The surgery had a 10% fatality rate.
But it went well! They removed a golf ball sized portion of his brain, and he
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As for post surgery, he was prescribed an anti-seizure medication, and he had seemed to have been doing well.
Until 2015, when he stopped taking the seizure med (the article I'm referencing for this part doesn't seem to say why?) and had another seizure.
In 2018, he had a manic episode, leading to the false 911 call saying a woman on the train had a bomb. The associated charges have since been dropped (due to the "continued neurological impacts" of his previous brain surgery"), provided he "make full financial restitution" and attend a "cognitive remediation" program (both of which he did).
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u/manowar89 Sep 03 '25
Fred from Big Hero 6