LYING in his hospital bed, linked up to multiple machines after crushing 38 bones in his body, Jeremy Renner feared he would never work again.
Now the Marvel star has spoken about his miracle comeback after a horror snow plough accident that cracked his skull and almost killed him.
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The 53-year-old superhero actor had his chest and legs crushed by the six and a half tonne machine as he tried to stop it rolling onto his nephew.
The near fatal injuries were so bad that he could see one eyeball with the other and in hospital he wrote down what he thought might be his dying words.
But just 18 months after the horrific freak accident he has returned to TV screens for the third series of the TV drama Mayor of Kingstown and next year he will star in the third Knives Out murder mystery movie with Daniel Craig.
The American Hurt Locker star needed emergency surgery, several operations, daily works out, an antigravity treadmill, an anti-inflammatory diet and turned his home into a rehab centre.
Even now every day is a struggle.
Talking about the accident, where his huge snow plough rolled over him on New Year’s Day in 2023 outside his home in Washoe County, Nevada, he told Men’s Health magazine: “I remember my head cracking on the thing and it just pressing on me – it’s exactly like you think it would feel.
“An immovable object and a crushing force and something’s got to give.
“But thank God my skull didn’t fully give.”
He added: “I could see my left eyeball with my right eyeball.
“I was screaming for a breath.
“I needed to shove all my energy of air out just so I could suck air back in.”
After a 12ft snowfall, Jeremy had been using his snow plough to help others get moving again, including trying to tow his nephew Sawyer’s truck.
But then the plough started to roll down the hill and as it did so Jeremy attempted to jump into the vehicle, to save Sawyer.
Instead he was pulled beneath its tracks.
His neighbours called the emergency services, who were able to get him out from underneath the plough, stem the bleeding and get him to hospital.
Jeremy said: “I remember being intubated, I got handcuffed in restraints”.
Family’s fears
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Because he had the tube down his throat to help him breath he was unable to speak to his worried family.
After the first operation he was placed on life support for two weeks.
The shock was terrible for them, with him telling TV host Jimmy Fallon: “It happened to my parents, it happened to my poor daughter, it happened to my nephew who was there.”
Using sign language he told his relatives he was “sorry” and later wrote his last wishes on his smartphone.
Tearfully, Jeremy, who has an 11-year-old daughter Ava, recalled that he left a message saying: “Don’t let me live on tubes or on machines and if my existence is going to be on drugs or painkillers, just let me go now.”
Thanks to the medical team, he was able to breathe by himself again.
But the pain from all the broken bones, including his ribs, pelvis and jaw, was so intense that it was hard to cope.
He has titanium in his face to support his wrecked eye socket, the same metal was used to rebuild his rib cage and rods were placed in one leg.
His friends rallied around, with fellow Avengers actor Anthony Mackie the first co-star he saw after he woke up in hospital and Robert Downey Jr making regular calls helping to keep his mind off the injuries.
The first daily challenge was getting out of bed.
Jeremy said: “It took me 17 minutes to get out of bed. I was happy to sometimes sit up and push myself into a chair.”
Then it was learning how to walk again, through intense physio.
Three months after the accident he posted photographs of himself with a walking stick and a mobility scooter at a funfair.
Every day there was “countless hours of physical therapy, peptide injections, iv drips and pushes, stem cell and exosomes, red light / IR therapy, hyperbaric chamber 2.0 atmospheres, cold plunge, and the list goes on and on.”
Painful recovery
In the summer of that year he was walking without the cane and able to socialise with pals again.
Strengthening his legs is his key challenge, with regular workouts.
He drinks a lot of protein supplements, even sneaking it into his morning espresso.
But he has to push himself to get up and get on with his rehabilitation.
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Jeremy said: “I’m like Benjamin Button – in the morning, I feel 90 years old.
“I get out of bed and just want to die and slowly throughout the day I reverse age until I feel about 45. It’s something to look forward to, too.”
Remarkably he started filming The Mayor of Kingstown in January of this year and was performing stunts such as kicking or punching his fellow actors.
But he told a podcast that big action roles, like Hawkeye in the Disney Avengers blockbusters, are off the cards right now due to his injuries, which included 38 broken bones.
Jeremy said: “I just don’t have the energy for it. I don’t have the fuel. I have so much fuel to put into this reality, this body, all this stuff,”
He has not, though, ruled out returning to Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible series at some point.
At the moment it is a case of taking each day as it comes and trying to be stronger than the last one.
He concluded: “I’m still trying to live in reality, I’m trying to live.”
BATTLING BACK
JEREMY Renner confounded medics by returning to work just a year after 38 bones were crushed by his snow plough. Here is how he did it.
A key to the Hurt Locker actor’s survival was the quick reaction of emergency services and medics.
He was airlifted to hospital where he underwent life saving surgery.
Then it was a long road to recovery, which was sped up by the two time Oscar nominee’s determination to get better.
His sports physician Christopher Vincent told People magazine that the actor’s injuries were so extensive that “you can’t deal with that much pain.”
The agony was 24/7, even as the actor tried to sleep.
Jeremy was given anti-inflammatory diet to help reduce the pain, plus protein shakes and vitamins.
He does intravenous drips weekly because it has a more instant impact on his joints.
Jeremy also meditated and made sure he kept his limbs moving so they didn’t seize up again.
His house was turned into “a full rehab center” with a hi-tech treadmill designed by a NASA scientist which helped him to walk without putting all of his weight on his legs.
He said: “I will say no to nothing”, including a hyberbaric chamber and heat therapies and electric stimulation.
Jeremy continues to work out daily particularly building up the power in his legs.
The superfit action star lifts weights and has his own gym, focusing on core and endurance rather than “vanity” body building.
A Wellness doctor recommends what foods to eat, with broths important for Jeremy because he can’t chew some things such as nuts due to damage to his back teeth.
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