Jamie-Lynn Sigler reflects on son Beau’s near-death experience

Jamie-Lynn Sigler opened up about her son Beau’s recovery from an autoimmune condition that left him hospitalized for over a month, sharing that it was a near-death experience that has changed his perspective.

Beau, 11, battled an illness believed to be acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), a rare condition that causes inflammation in the brain and spinal cord. On the latest episode of her MeSsy podcast with Christina Applegate, the Sopranos alum said her son has become a new version of himself since his hospitalization over the summer.

“We’ve been home for about a month since Beau’s gotten out of the hospital,” said Sigler, sharing that her son has been on an almost “euphoric grateful high” since. “It was beautiful to witness because I think he could have come out of this experience in a lot of different ways and with a lot of different reactions. But I thought this was gonna wear off, and it hasn’t. He is the most patient, understanding, little human I’ve ever been around.”

She added, “It’s almost like all the things that we have been taught, all the things that we subscribe to, all the things that we believe in about the world and the universe and how to accept and react, he just embodies. And I feel everyone in my house kind of shifting around it. And, for instance, like, baseball. His baseball team is his greatest joy.”

At his first practice back, “He practiced for, like, 30 minutes and then his body told him no more, and you’d think a normal 10, 11-year-old kid would be upset,” she recalled. “Instead, he was like, ‘Hey, mom, dad. I think I’m done with practice. I’m just gonna sit on the bench and watch my team for the rest of the time to be a good teammate.'”

“This is Beau 2.0. This is not Beau,” Sigler said, sharing one particular anecdote about her “little Buddha” with a wise beyond his years outlook: “He still can’t urinate in the mornings. It takes him, like, 30 minutes to get it out. I walked [into the bathroom] and I was like, ‘Beau, are you okay?’ He’s like, ‘It’s okay, mom. My body’s been through a lot. It’s just taking some time. It’s okay.’ I walked out, and I’m like, not f—ing once have I reacted to anything that my body has experienced or been through in this way,” recalled Sigler, who has lived with multiple sclerosis for the last two decades.

“He’s just so accepting of wherever he’s at in his journey,” Sigler marveled. “I just thought it was worth mentioning because for the nightmare that we went through, now I get to be the lucky one to just kind of have this little Buddha walking around all of the time and really reminding me of just what is right now and keeping me from judging any moment or judging where my body’s at . . . because how lucky are we that we just get to be here? That’s literally how he feels and who he is.”

It’s been an “otherworldy” experience, she mused. “He had a near death experience.” Beau now “speaks of God,” added Sigler. “We would talk about God here and there, but he prays every single night.”

Sigler is also mom to son Jack with husband Cutter Dykstra. For more about Beau’s journey, listen to the podcast episode in full above.