Adam Devine told by doctors he was dying after severe health complications from childhood accident

Adam Devine, known for his comedic roles in Pitch Perfect, Workaholics, and Modern Family, recently shared a deeply personal and shocking health scare that nearly turned his life upside down.

During a revealing interview on the “In Depth With Graham Bensinger” podcast, the actor disclosed that he was misdiagnosed with a rare, potentially fatal condition — only to later discover the root of his health struggles was linked to a devastating childhood accident.

“I was having spasms all over and I still kind of do,” Devine said on the podcast.

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“They don’t really know. For a while, they told me I was dying. Literally within this last year, they told me that.”

The 41-year-old actor explained that doctors initially told him he had Stiff Person Syndrome, a rare autoimmune neurological disorder.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, the condition typically causes painful muscle stiffness and spasms, which can become more severe over time and, in some cases, severely impair mobility.

“They told me that I have that literally a month before my son, Beau, was born,” Devine shared. “And so I’m like, ‘Oh great, now I’m gonna die. He’s gonna be six years old and only know a crippled father.’”

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The news sent Devine into a spiral of fear, as he contemplated a future where he wouldn’t be around to watch his son grow up.

He said the muscle tightness and spasms intensified over time, prompting him to seek out further medical opinions.

That’s when a different medical expert finally pointed him in a new — and far more hopeful — direction.

While Devine did not name the specialist, he recalled that the expert dismissed the diagnosis of Stiff Person Syndrome and instead traced his symptoms back to a traumatic incident from his youth: when Devine was hit by a 42-ton cement truck at just 11 years old.

“He’s like, ‘This is from your accident when you were a child,’” Devine explained. “‘The spasms are a little unexplainable, but it could just be [that] you got so tight that your body doesn’t know what to do with it so you’re misfiring a little bit.’”

The memory of the accident still looms large in Devine’s mind. At the time, he and a friend were walking to the store with innocent, mischievous intentions — to grab candy and tear pages from Playboy magazines.

As they approached a busy street, Devine waited for what he thought was a safe moment to cross. It wasn’t.

“I walked out, and I got clobbered, and taken under the wheel, and spit out, and I flew like 500 feet, they said, and [I] was helicoptered away,” he recalled.

The accident left him with devastating injuries. He suffered trauma to his leg, groin, hip ligaments, and back. Devine was confined to a wheelchair and unable to walk between sixth and seventh grade.

He underwent 26 surgeries in rapid succession and has had at least a dozen more since. He showed Bensinger his lingering leg injury during the interview, joking that it “looks like uncooked chicken.”

Despite the humor, the pain was — and still is — very real. Devine had to relearn how to sit and stand, and although he eventually regained the ability to walk, his legs remain “messed up” to this day.

He believes that his adult workout routines, including cycling and CrossFit, may have triggered some of the residual pain.

But amid the chaos of that painful chapter in his life, comedy became his unexpected salvation.

While recovering and wheelchair-bound, Devine began calling into a local radio station, doing impressions to win CDs and concert tickets.

It was there he first discovered his knack for performance and comedic timing.

That discovery would go on to define the rest of his life. “I think it gave me the confidence to go to Los Angeles and try acting,” Devine said.

His resilience, humor, and ability to find light even in the darkest of situations have long been hallmarks of Devine’s career.

Now, with a deeper understanding of his health and a renewed outlook on life, the actor is embracing fatherhood, creativity, and the healing that comes from truth — both medically and personally.

For fans, his story is more than a health scare or childhood trauma — it’s a testament to survival, self-discovery, and the power of never giving up.

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