Jeremy Renner reflected on his existence, wondering if he would be ‘just a spine and a brain’ as shocking footage is revealed of where he was crushed by a seven-ton snowplow just months after the horrific incident .
Renner had been using a Snowcat plow to try to help his adult cousin, Alexander Fries, pull his car out of the deep snow when he jumped out, forgetting to apply the emergency brake.
The squad began charging towards his nephew and the 52-year-old allegedly tried to get back into the snowplow as it drove in in an attempt to stop it. Then he was pulled under and crushed.
In his first interview since the Jan. 1 accident near his home in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, the 52-year-old also revealed that he signed “I’m sorry” to his family who were by his side as the Avengers star recovered .
He suffered 30 broken bones, a collapsed lung and had his liver punctured by a shattered rib in the horrific, fatal accident on New Year’s Day.
Jeremy Renner reflected on his existence, wondering if he would be “just a spine and a brain,” as shocking footage is revealed of where he was crushed by a seven-ton snowplow just months after the horrific incident.
Blood-soaked snow exposes horrific accident that happened near Renner’s home in Lake Tahoe, Nevada
He suffered 30 broken bones, a collapsed lung and had his liver pierced by a shattered rib in the horrific New Year’s Day fatality
‘I moved my legs, and I said, he’s really confused. That leg is going to be a problem,” he said.
‘What does my body look like? Will I just become like a spine and a brain like a science experiment? Is that my existence now? What will my existence be like?’
While sitting in his wheelchair talking to ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Renner held back tears as he revealed the moments in the hospital when he couldn’t even talk to his loving family who desperately wanted him to survive the accident.
“I gestured I’m sorry, because I’m sorry,” he said before talking about how his mother never left his side.
“She’s reading Stephen King, some horror thing. But she reads it like Dr. Seuss reads to me.”
“I just wanted him to hear my voice,” his mother Valerie Cearley said.
Cearley broke down when she talked about the moment she learned of her son’s accident, saying “his breathing was so horrible.”
Photos from the scene showed a pool of blood where Renner was crushed, his neighbor, Rich Kovach, remembering the moment he made the harrowing 911 call that would ultimately save his life.
“The sounds coming out of him, there was so much blood in the snow,” he said.
“When I looked at his head it looked like it was 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. ‘
Valerie Cearley, Renner’s mother, broke down when she spoke of the moment she learned of her son’s accident, saying: ‘His breathing was so horrible’
Photos from the scene showed a pool of blood where Renner was crushed, his neighbor, Rich Kovach, remembering the moment he made the harrowing 911 call that would ultimately save his life. His partner Barb also shared her memories
Renner had been using a Snowcat plow to help his adult cousin, Alexander Fries, pull his car out of deep snow when he jumped out, forgetting to apply the emergency brake
His partner, Barb Fletcher, said she didn’t know who it was but remembers “a lot of blood came out of his head.”
“I grabbed one of the towels that was still folded and applied pressure. I could tell he was really struggling to breathe,” she said.
Fries, sitting next to his uncle, remembers telling him to breathe.
“Just breathe, just breathe. That is it. I stood over him in this crouched position holding his arm the whole time, seconds after that guy came over,” he said.
‘It was just that. I was locked inside him.’
Renner said he refuses to be a victim of the situation.
“So I change the story of being victimized, or making a mistake, or whatever,” he said.
“I refuse to let that memory haunt me, that way I talk to my family about it, all their perspectives, which are horrifying.
Alexander Fries, standing next to his uncle, remembers telling him to breathe and was also with him during his recovery
Renner said he refuses to be a victim of the situation and is focused on recovery
“We just stuck with it, that’s real love. Suffering, but that feeds the seeds of what love is.’
Renner broke 30 bones, including both ankles, his right knee, his right collarbone and eight ribs.
He suffered a collapsed lung and his liver was punctured by one of his broken ribs.
Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview – A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph airs on ABC on Thursday, April 6 at 10 p.m. EST.