For most of us, a new year brings about a fresh new start. But for American actor Jeremy Renner, this “rebirth” is quite real.
The Marvel actor is celebrating the second anniversary of his close call with death, ringing in his ”second ‘ReBirthday’ today” with an Instagram post.
The actor was the victim of a horrifying snow plough incident when he was pulled under one and was crushed when he was trying to stop the tractor from sliding and hitting his nephew on New Year’s Day in 2023.
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The actor had been hosting family at his mountain vacation home in Reno, Nevada, with the area undergoing a blizzard.
The actor planned to use the vehicle to clear the area and tow his car. His nephew, Alex Fries – the son of Renner’s sister Kym – was helping by attaching the car to the plough with a chain, but the Hawkeye actor became concerned after he couldn’t see his young nephew.
Renner then leaned out of the window to try and see Fries but he did not put the parking brake on and fell out. Acting quickly in case the vehicle would roll into Fries, the star tried to pull himself back in but instead fell under it, taking the entire weight of the heavy machine as it ran over him.
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“I send out my love, respect, and gratitude for the army of people that it took to put me back together again. Thank you to each and every nurse, doctor, first responder… I literally owe you my life,” he said, sharing a picture with his saviours in question.
“All my heart goes out to my beautiful, brave nephew and the angels (my neighbours) who jumped to my aid and endured the chaos for 45 long minutes on the icy asphalt New Year’s morning. I’m so sorry all the haunting images I imprinted on you all (I’ll spare you all from the meat grinding images),” the 53-year-old joked.
“My gratitude list is very long …. With the amount of love and prayers that flooded in from you all around the world (needing each and everyone of them), my family never leaving my side , with some divine intervention, a bit of luck and a whole lot of miracles … I stand strong again,” he said.
“More Open. More Loved. More Connected. And f——BLESSED to take my next step, to take MY NEXT BREATH. Thank you with every fibre and cell in my body. I love you ALL ❤️.”
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The actor had broken more than 30 bones, including his right knee, right ankle, left leg, tibia, left ankle, right shoulder and eight ribs in the freak accident.
Though the father-of-one was released from hospital in two weeks, he was bedridden for a month and had to learn to walk again.
The Mayor of Kingstown star recently credited his daughter, 11-year-old daughter Ava, who he shared with ex Sonni Pacheco, as his motivation for surviving the accident.
“She is everything. She’s my life force. I felt such guilt for not wanting to come back ’cause I was OK not coming back to this planet, but I felt so bad because I forgot about my daughter,” Renner told Entertainment Weekly.
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“I forgot about everybody else, but she’s my life force, man. It took me away from any pain. I would feel, ‘So, all I have to do is get better for her’ [because] when you do that, you’re not worried about yourself and how you’re feeling and how broken you are.
“It’s like, ‘How do I help my daughter not be scared that her dad’s not doing so well?’ So, it was quite a blessing to have her as my ally, my champion through this, and she became a much stronger young woman because of that.”
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