Brooke Shields calls gruesome leg injury 'the biggest blessing': 'I realized what a fighter I am'
Brooke Shields is still recovering from the brutal injury she suffered in January during a work out. The 55-year-old actress revealed on Good Morning America she wasn't sure she'd ever walk again after a broken femur led to her being hospitalized twice.
"I think it's almost been the biggest blessing to date because I realized what a fighter I am," Shields said in an interview that aired on Monday.
Shields was finishing the thirteenth day of a 14-day work out plan when she sustained the leg injury.
"I was energized, I wasn't exhausted. I had been eating even healthier and not drinking," Shields recalled. "We finished the workout and I went in the back on my own and I went on this balance board because I had been doing it, and I finally conquered it."
The model got distracted, looking away for a moment "and I flew up in the air with such force."
"I landed so heavy and so hard and with such musculature and such velocity and such height on my hip," Shields said. "I felt how solid the impact was. I don't remember hearing anything. The only thing I could keep saying was that I could feel my toes because I just knew that I couldn't move, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't paralyzed."
Shields was "inches away" from hitting her head on a weight bench. "There's so many things that could have happened," she explained. "I feel so lucky to be alive."
The author remembered "screaming" when she fell.
"I've never screamed like that — I mean, not even in childbirth," she said.
Shields was taken to a local hospital where she immediately had surgery. But the fracture shifted so she underwent a second revision surgery to anchor it in place. Shields, who shares daughters Rowan, 18, and Grier, 15, with husband Chris Henchy, was alone in the hospital for two weeks due to COVID-19 safety protocols.
The Blue Lagoon star said she remained pretty calm until developing a Staph infection when she returned home. Shields rushed back to the hospital for emergency surgery. She remained hospitalized for another two weeks.
"Once fear crept in, that's when I started to falter," Shields admitted. "I don't think I've ever been more afraid because I was helpless."
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Shields "had to stay calm" for her family.
"My kids actually asked me if they thought I was going to die," she shared.
Shields has been documenting her recovery journey on social media and hopes to help others dealing with adversity.
"If I can turn it into anything positive, or I can teach my girls, yeah, stuff is going to happen in your life, and how you respond is going to define you, and adversity will reveal you," Shields said. " You see what you're made up of."
"Especially women," she added. "I want them to know that they deserve to feel good about themselves and be healthier and happier and bigger, live a bigger life."
“I feel so lucky to be alive.” @BrookeShields tells @DebRobertsABC that she wasn’t sure she would be able to walk again after breaking her femur in a devastating gym accident in January. https://t.co/i9rZzYvW4spic.twitter.com/tDX8R5eHvh
— Good Morning America (@GMA) May 24, 2021
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