Find out “What Health Problems Does Val Kilmer Have?” In making the long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise and the creative team had to take into account a number of things.
Val Kilmer played Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in the first Top Gun. However, Kilmer’s actual health problems made it difficult to bring back the character. When the actor underwent a tracheotomy to combat throat cancer a number of years ago, his voice completely changed.
Equally stoic to Iceman in sternness. Ever since Val Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer over five years ago, he has been on a health journey.
What Health Problems Does Val Kilmer Have?
After first denying he was unwell, Val Kilmer finally came clean about having throat cancer in 2017, discussing how the condition had altered his outlook on life.
Kilmer revealed his initial reluctance to seek medical assistance in a candid interview with the New York Times. The Times writes that Kilmer’s children ultimately persuaded him to get treatment for his throat cancer, which included numerous rounds of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. The surgeries helped Kilmer to recover from his throat cancer diagnosis and apparently enter remission, as reported by several sources, including his 2020 documentary Val and his memoir I’m Your Huckleberry.
Sadly, Kilmer’s treatments required a tracheostomy tube and a feeding tube, thus rendering him unable to talk as he previously had.
Val said in his 2021 documentary that he eats through a tube.
“”I can’t talk unless I plug this hole in my throat,” he said, adding, “You have to choose whether to breathe or eat.”
Most of the documentary was told by his son, but Kilmer added, “It’s a problem that everyone who sees me is aware of. He says he sounds “much worse” than he feels.
“I have done strange things to some people,” he said. “I don’t deny any of this, and I don’t feel bad about it because I’ve lost and found parts of myself I didn’t know existed. I am lucky.”
Val Kilmer Health Update
Kilmer said in an interview that aired on Good Morning America in April 2020 that the procedure was done as part of his recovery and to help him feel less pain at the time.
He said, “I feel a lot better than I sound, but I feel great.” “I was told I had throat cancer, which got better very fast. This is a tracheotomy to help me breathe because the glands in my throat swelled up.”
Sameep Kadakia, MD, director of Premier Health’s Comprehensive Head and Neck Cancer and Reconstruction Program, tells Premier Health Now that Kilmer’s return to the big screen with his voice damaged by cancer sends a strong message to cancer patients and their families.