If you were paying close attention to either the 2022 World Cup or the 2023 Oscars, you may have noticed Morgan Freeman wearing a glove on his left hand.
This wasn’t a tribute to Michael Jackson’s iconic look (the glove he usually wore was on his right hand), it was something far more serious.
If you remember in 2008, Freeman was involved in a horrific car accident that could have very easily taken his life. While driving in Mississippi, his car veered off the road, and while he attempted to stop the vehicle, he accidentally overcorrected himself which resulted in the car flipping numerous times before coming to a stop.
While no other cars were involved, there were witnesses to the accident, per the New York Post.
“I was watching TV, and I heard the skid,” said Bill Rogers at the time, a local resident. “I looked out the window and saw the car flipping head over end.”
By the time local newspaper editor Clay McFerrin got to the scene, first responders were attempting to get Freeman out of the car in which he was stuck inside.
“They had to use the Jaws of Life to extract [Freeman] from the vehicle,” McFerrin explained. “He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point.”
While Freeman was in good spirits, he was in a great deal of pain, having broken his arm and shoulder, and ultimately paralyzing his left hand.
Despite surgeries to try and repair nerve damage in his hand, it remains immobile and the glove he wears is a compression glove that helps blood flow.
He told People in 2010, “I suffered nerve damage, and it hasn’t gotten better. I can’t move it.”
Two years after that, he opened up to Esquire about how simple tasks and activities have been affected and what he has done to make the best of those circumstances.
“I play one-handed,” Morgan admitted while talking about him continuing to play golf with his permanently damaged hand. “I swing with my right arm.”
In that same interview, he revealed the condition in which he suffers as a result of the accident.
“It’s the fibromyalgia,” he said. “Up and down the arm. That’s where it gets so bad. Excruciating.”
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), “Fibromyalgia is a chronic (long-lasting) disorder that causes pain and tenderness throughout the body, as well as fatigue and trouble sleeping. Scientists do not fully understand what causes it, but people with the disorder have a heightened sensitivity to pain.”
The NIH also states there is no cure nor is there any clear evidence as to what causes the condition. However, Mayo Clinic suggests that “physical trauma, surgery, infection or significant psychological stress” can result in fibromyalgia.
Still, Freeman’s career has been minimally affected by the injury, as he’s starred in a number of films since 2008, including, Invictus, Now You See Me, and most recently, A Good Person.
Sources:
https://nypost.com/2023/03/12/why-morgan-freeman-wore-glove-on-his-left-hand-at-2023-oscars/
closerweekly.com/posts/what-happened-to-morgan-freeman-hand-accident-update/
