The devastating accident that shaped Morgan Freeman’s life: “I have dead fingers”
On the evening of August 3rd, 2008, Morgan Freeman‘s life encountered a change in fate. The 71-year-old was driving a 1997 Nissan Maxima belonging to a friend late at night in his native Mississippi when he mysteriously crashed the car, which resulted in the vehicle flipping and rolling, along with Freeman and his passenger. The incident was bad enough that both of them needed to be pried out using the ‘Jaws of Life’.
It was an extremely serious accident, and even though Freeman was reportedly conscious at the scene and joking with his rescuers, it was soon discovered that his left shoulder, arm, and elbow had been broken in the smash. Two days after the devastating incident, he underwent surgery to attempt to repair the severe nerve damage in his shoulder and arm. This surgery was successful, but unfortunately, it left him with a motionless left hand.
“I almost cut my arm off and suffered nerve damage as a result,” Freeman matter-of-factly told The i Paper in 2017. “I have dead fingers. If you can’t move your fingers, they swell up because the blood isn’t flowing”.
In the aftermath of the crash, the actor was cleared of alcohol being a factor in its cause, although his passenger still sued him for negligence. This lawsuit was settled out of court, and it later emerged that Freeman had passed out at the wheel thanks to an atrial fibrillation caused by arrhythmia—or, in layman’s terms, an abnormal heartbeat. “They put a pacemaker in me after that,” Freeman revealed in 2024, adding, “it was very bad.”
Thankfully, he was able to get back to work with astonishing speed, although over the next few years, the aftereffects of the crash simply wouldn’t go away. The iconic star developed fibromyalgia in his left arm, a condition he told Esquire is “excruciating” when it manifests as shooting pains, “up and down the arm. That’s where it gets so bad”.
To combat the fibromyalgia and the lack of movement in his left hand, Freeman began wearing a compression glove, which stimulates the blood flow and ensures it doesn’t pool in his fingers. The star was seen wearing the glove soon after the accident, and then sported it during a 2018 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, as well as at the 2022 World Cup opening ceremony in Qatar. However, it didn’t get widespread attention until he wore it at the 2023 Academy Awards, despite him even beginning to wear it onscreen, such as in Taylor Sheridan’s Special Ops: Lioness.
While Freeman isn’t the sort of guy who has any trouble talking about his accident, and certainly would never be embarrassed about wearing a glove, the effect it has had on his personal life is significant. He suffers from chronic pain and has had to give up several hobbies that he previously loved. For example, he took up sailing at the age of 65, but can no longer do it safely.
“The last time I was on my boat, I couldn’t park it,” he sadly admitted in 2024. “I went out with friends one day, and I couldn’t get my boat back into the slip”. With a sigh of resignation, he acknowledged, “That’s a humbling experience. Heartbreaking. I walked away from sailing”. This was especially devastating for the notoriously publicity-shy star, who has always had a love-hate relationship with fame, because sailing was often his escape. “It was complete isolation,” he explained, “It was the best way for me to find quiet; how I found time to read”.
However, Freeman has never been someone to complain or to let his hardships get him down. So, he has simply adjusted certain things in his life, rather than give them up completely. “I have to move on to other things, to other conceptions of myself,” he mused. “I play golf. I still work. And I can be pretty happy just walking the land.” When asked how he is able to play golf with only one working arm, the star deadpanned, “I play one-handed. I swing with my right arm”.
