By Frank Lucasale 
Actor Jeremy Renner shared a memory of his nearly deadly snowplow accident in his new memoir, My Next Breath. The book goes into detail about what happened in January 2023 when Renner was run over by a 14,000-pound snowplow on his property in Nevada. The accident happened while Renner was trying to save his nephew from being hit by the massive machine.
After getting his nephew out of harm’s way, Renner ended up stuck under the snowplow himself, suffering terrible injuries. He broke more than 30 bones and lost around six quarts of blood. On top of that, lying on the freezing driveway for so long put him at serious risk of hypothermia. He stayed there for about 45 minutes before emergency crews arrived, with his nephew and a neighbor doing what they could to help until then.
One of the most striking parts of Renner’s story is his description of his near-death experience. According to US Magainze, He remembered a moment when his heart rate dropped to an extremely low 18 beats per minute, a condition doctors say is basically the same as being clinically dead. During this time, he passed out and felt like his sense of time and space completely changed.
Jeremy Renner opens up about accident in memoir
Renner described an intense feeling of energy, a peaceful and connected state where he was free from the limits of the physical world. Unlike many near-death stories, he didn’t see a bright light or dead relatives. Instead, he felt a powerful sense of pure energy and being connected to everything.
A key part of Renner’s story is his belief that some strong force pulled him back from death. He describes feeling like something was telling him not to let go, which he says is what brought him back to life. His survival is incredible, showing not just his own strength but also what might have been a mix of medical help and something beyond explanation.
Renner wrote, “After about 30 minutes on the ice, of breathing manually for so long, an effort akin to doing 10 or 20 push-ups per minute for half an hour … that’s when I died… I died, right there on the driveway to my house.”
Even though the accident was life-threatening and left him with severe injuries, Renner now sees it differently. In his book, he calls it a glory moment, not just because he nearly died but because it showed how much his family loved him and how strong he was in the face of something so terrible. He has talked openly about being thankful for his recovery and for surviving something that would have killed most people.
The memoir doesn’t just focus on the physical injuries but also the long, difficult recovery that followed. His many broken bones required serious medical treatment and months of rehab, showing just how much effort it took to heal. He also talks about the emotional side of recovery, something that isn’t often discussed in such depth.