After he shared a video from inside an ambulance on his way to hospital, a lot of fans are wondering what happened to iShowSpeed?
The popular YouTuber and video game streamer, whose real name is Darren Watkins Jnr., is known for his Roblox, Fornite and FIFA content and has close to 19 million subscribers on YouTube at the time of writing in late July 2023.
He began streaming in 2019 and has been somewhat of a divisive online personality given his often violent behavior during streams and his outbursts—sometimes misogynistic in nature—have resulted in him being banned from Twitch. Esports commentator Jake Lucky unearthed an old clip of IShowSpeed screaming at a female Valorant player, telling her to “get off the f—king game and do your husband’s dishes” at the top of his lungs. He was subsequently banned from the game. He later apologized in a statement issued to Twitter, saying that his behavior was “wrong” and noted he was “getting a lot of racist speech” that day, including a comment from two Valorant players that told him that “only the white characters can heal.” But on July 30, 2023, the YouTuber was rushed to hospital so here’s what happened to iShowSpeed.
What happened to iShowSpeed?
What happened to iShowSpeed? iShowSpeed was rushed to hospital, visibly in pain and with a swollen eye—he was complaining of cluster headaches.
“Right now I’m having one of the worst experiences, I can’t even open up my eyes,” he told his audience. “I have this thing called a cluster headache, the most deadly headache disease. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t do anything right now. It hurts so bad guys, I can’t do anything, like anything, it just hurts. Everything I do is like something pounding my head every time and I’m so angry. It just hurts like even now it just hurts.” The video has more than 3 million views.
Watkins continued to explain that, “My eye’s puffing up. It feels like a stab, it feels like somebody is stabbing my eye with a knife, boom, boom, boom, boom. I wanted to give y’all boys an update cause I don’t know what’s happening to me, you know what I’m saying.” He continued: “I want y’all boys to always right there with me until I die. I don’t know man, when I get back home I’m gonna probably chill from travelling for a bit because there’s a lot going on.”
In an update shared a day after, he said that he was desperate to get home to reconnect with fans and start streaming again. “I really just wanna go home and stream for y’all. Go home, play Fortnite, play Fifa 24, I just wanna go home to stream but I don’t know how long I’m going to be here,” he said. “They can keep me here for months, weeks, days or years if they want to. I just did an MRI.”
He continued: “Love y’all boys, just pray I don’t die bro. Every second I just think I’m going to die cause it hurts so bad. Just pray for me, please. I’ve never experienced anything like this. My mom and dad have had to fly all the way to Tokyo, just please pray for me, I’m trying to keep good spirits – I got a few of my friends with me here but it’s hard to be in the hospital.”
What is a cluster headache?
A cluster headache, according to the Mayo Clinic, is among one of the most painful types of headaches. It “strikes quickly, usually without warning, although you might first have migraine-like nausea and aura,” writes the site, and “commonly awakens you in the middle of the night with intense pain in or around one eye on one side of your head.” While it can be extremely painful, contrary to iShowSpeed’s comment describing it as a “deadly” headache disease, cluster headaches are not life-threatening, nor are they a disease.
However, “headache pain, even when severe, usually isn’t the result of an underlying disease. But headaches can occasionally indicate a serious underlying medical condition, such as a brain tumor or rupture of a weakened blood vessel (aneurysm),” and if you experience a sudden headache coupled “with a fever, nausea or vomiting, a stiff neck, mental confusion, seizures, numbness, or speaking difficulties,” it “can indicate a number of problems, including a stroke, meningitis, encephalitis or a brain tumor.” The best solution is to seek emergency care.
Cluster headache symptoms:
- Excruciating pain that is generally situated in, behind or around one eye, but may radiate to other areas of your face, head and neck
- One-sided pain
- Restlessness
- Excessive tearing
- Redness of your eye on the affected side
- Stuffy or runny nose on the affected side
- Forehead or facial sweating on the affected side
- Pale skin (pallor) or flushing on your face
- Swelling around your eye on the affected side
- Drooping eyelid on the affected side
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