Jeremy Renner has shared exactly how his brush with death unfolded in a snow plough accident that left him with life-changing injuries.
The Oscar-nominated actor said he “forgot to apply the parking brake” on the vehicle before being run over by it, breaking more than 30 of his bones, collapsing a lung and piercing his liver.
New photographs show Mr Renner attached to a ventilator with a brace around his neck as he lays in a hospital bed in intensive care, his face visibly bruised.
Mr Renner said he was at fault in the accident and apologised to his family for putting them through the ordeal in an interview with ABC on Thursday.
He was driving the plough after using it to pull one of the family’s trucks out of the snow and onto the pavement.
Mr Renner said he was worried about the safety of his nephew, Alex, as the plough began to skid on ice.
Alex had just unhooked the chains connecting the truck and plough. Mr Renner moved to stick a foot out of the plough and glance back at Alex – but did not set the parking brake.
He then lost his footing, falling out of the plough’s cab. ABC shared a detailed recreation of how the incident unfolded.
‘It’s my mistake, and I paid for it’
“You shouldn’t be outside the vehicle when you’re operating it, you know what I mean? It’s like driving a car with one foot out of the car,” Mr Renner, seated in a wheelchair, told ABC News journalist Diane Sawyer.
“But it is what it was,” he added. “And it’s my mistake, and I paid for it.”
Mr Renner then jumped back into the vehicle to stop the plough from rolling back and crushing his nephew.
He stepped onto the plough’s moving wheel tracks, which threw him forward, and the vehicle ran over him, breaking more than 30 of his bones, collapsing a lung and piercing his liver.
Neighbours who tended to the 52-year-old actor, who is best known for playing Marvel superhero Hawkeye in the “Avengers” movies, said they found him with blood all around him, shallow breathing and a crack in his skull.
Rich Kovach and Barb Fletcher, who were some of the only neighbours home that day, said they thought Mr Renner “did pass away for a couple of seconds”.
“At one point, he just got a clammy feel to him, he turned this grey-green colour and I feel in my heart that I feel like we lost him for a second,” Ms Fletcher told Diane Sawyer. “He closed his eyes. And I just tried to keep him awake.”
“I really feel he did pass away for a couple of seconds. I really do,” she added.
Mr Kovach said he was shocked at the “amount of blood” Mr Renner’s injuries had caused.
“And then he was — he was just in such pain,” he said, “And the sounds that were coming out of him — and there was so much blood in the snow.”
“And then when I looked at his head it appeared to me to be cracked wide open. And I could see white, I don’t know if that was his skull … maybe it was just my imagination but that’s what I thought I saw,” Mr Kovach added.
Ms Fletcher recalled grabbing towels to apply pressure as Mr Renner “struggled to breathe”. She saw “a lot of blood coming out of his head”.
Mr Renner said he gestured to his family with a sign language motion that means “I’m sorry” as soon as he woke up in hospital.
“It’s my responsibility,” Mr Renner said. “I feel bad that my actions caused so much pain.”
Screws and titanium rods were used by doctors to repair broken ribs. Metal was also placed in his legs and face to rebuild his eye socket.
The actor is now undergoing hours of gruelling therapy for his injuries and was shown walking with the aid of a machine.
Mr Renner was nominated for an Academy Award for best actor for his work in 2008 film “The Hurt Locker” and for best-supporting actor for his work in 2010 movie “The Town”.
He is slated to make his in-person return to Hollywood on Tuesday at a red-carpet event for his TV series “Rennervations”, in which he helps repurpose older vehicles such as buses and provide them to communities in need.
Mr Renner credited the support of his family with helping him survive the accident.
“I’ve been refilled and refuelled with love and titanium,” he said.
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