JACKSON, Miss.–Actor Morgan Freeman is doing well after surgery to reconnect nerves and repair damage to his left arm and hand following a car wreck Sunday night, his publicist said. The surgery Monday night “lasted approximately four and a half hou
JACKSON, Miss.–Actor Morgan Freeman is doing well after surgery to reconnect nerves and repair damage to his left arm and hand following a car wreck Sunday night, his publicist said.
The surgery Monday night "lasted approximately four and a half hours including recovery, and he is in good spirits and was visiting with family members this morning," Donna Lee, Freeman’s publicist, said in a statement Tuesday.
"He was walking this (morning), and is looking forward to his release as soon as possible," Lee said. Freeman, 71, and Demaris Meyer, 48, of Memphis, Tenn., were taken to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis following the accident on a dark stretch of rural Mississippi Delta highway in Tallahatchie County.
State troopers said the car careened off the highway and flipped end-over-end before landing upright in a ditch. Rescuers used a jaws-of-life machine to free "The Dark Knight" star and Meyer from the wreckage of the car.
Freeman was airlifted about 90 miles to the Regional Medical Center where he was treated for a broken arm, broken elbow and shoulder damage, Lee said.
Bill Rogers, a retired police officer, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he witnessed the accident near the small town of Charleston, not far from where Freeman owns a home with his wife.
Rogers said Freeman complained of pain from injuries before being loaded onto a medical helicopter but "was more concerned about the people around him than himself."
"Mr. Freeman thought he may have gone to sleep, but he wasn’t sure," Rogers said. "He didn’t know what happened."
"The car was bent on the front as well as rear—I mean severely," Rogers said. "It was so bad I couldn’t tell what it was."
The Mississippi Highway Patrol is still investigating the accident, Sgt. Ben Williams said Tuesday. Alcohol and drugs don’t appear to be a factor, and no citations are likely to be filed, he said.
Hospital spokeswoman Kathy Stringer said Freeman remained in serious condition Tuesday. Meyer’s name wasn’t in the hospital registry, Stringer said.
However, under medical privacy laws, people can request that their names not be listed as patients at a hospital. (AP)
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