Modesto star Jeremy Renner gets electrified, recovering ‘like a mo-fo’ from snowplow accident
Modesto’s own Jeremy Renner is getting electrified on his road back to recovery after a New Year’s Day snowplow accident left him critically injured.
Over the weekend, the “Avengers” star and two-time Oscar nominee posted a video of one of his treatments for the injuries he sustained when he was run over by his plow while trying to help clear snow from his Lake Tahoe area property.
The actor, known for playing Hawkeye in the popular Marvel superhero franchise, shared an Instagram stories video of “electric stimulation workout” on his right leg. These kinds of medical therapies work by attaching electrodes to the skin that then send electrical currents to the muscles to contract.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use electrical muscle stimulator devices for patients who require “muscle re-education, relaxation of muscle spasms, increased range of motion, prevention of muscle atrophy, and for treating other medical conditions which usually result from a stroke, a serious injury, or major surgery.”
On Jan. 1, the Beyer High grad and Modesto Junior College theater alum was with family on his property off Mount Rose Highway near Reno on the Nevada side of the Tahoe Basin. That morning, he went to clear his nephew’s vehicle from the snow after a storm hit. That’s when the incident happened.
According to Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam, Renner had used his 14,300-plus-pound heavy-duty snow-removal plow to tow the vehicle free. Afterward, the snowplow began rolling. When Renner tried to get back in to stop it, e was pulled under one of its treads and crushed.
The 52-year-old actor, whose Paramount+ show “Mayor of Kingstown” started airing its second season shortly after his accident, was airlifted to a Reno hospital, where he remained in the intensive care unit for more than a week. Renner has kept fans updated on his condition through social media, particularly his Instagram account.
Renner suffered “blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries” from the accident and has said he is healing from “30 plus broken bones.” He has shown glimpses of his recovery, from his mother and sister giving him some TLC in his hospital room to images of his medical treatments.
According to 911 call logs obtained by CNN, Renner was “completely crushed under a large snowcat (vehicle)” with “extreme (difficulty) breathing.” The right side of the actor’s chest was “collapsed – upper torso is crushed” by the weight of the heavy-duty equipment.
Earlier this month, fellow Marvel actor and friend Evangeline Lilly visited Renner at his home. She said that while he was in a wheelchair, the actor was in great spirits and is “made of something really tough.”
The two played husband and wife in the 2009 Oscar-nominated film “The Hurt Locker,” which helped catapult the Modesto-raised actor to international fame. Lilly is also known for her role in the Marvel superhero franchise “Antman” and her TV stint on the hit series “Lost.”
“He has recovered like a mo-fo,” she told Access Hollywood. “I walked in his house and got chicken skin, ‘cause I was like, ‘Why are you mobile? Why are you mobile? What’s happening?’ I expected to sit at his bedside and hold his hand while he moaned and groaned in pain and wasn’t able to move. He was wheeling himself around, laughing with his friends. It’s a miracle, a straight-up miracle.”
