Oscar Nominee May Never Walk Again After Serious Fall

A devastating fall has likely left former Oscar nominee Hanif Kureishi with permanent injuries that could hinder the rest of his life. The My Beautiful Laundrette writer revealed the injury back on Jan. 6, revealing how a moment of dizziness led to a near-death experience while in Rome shortly after Christmas. In a tweet Friday, the 1986 Oscar nominee said he believed he had just “three breaths left.” “I cannot scratch my nose, make a phone call, or feed myself,” Kureishi said, adding that he has made “minor improvements” since his spine surgery. The acclaimed playwright, author, and screenwriter revealed in a candid Twitter thread that he became sick while watching another Premier League game between Liverpool and Aston Villa in the Italian capital: “I had just seen Mo Salah score against Aston Villa, sipped half a beer, when I began to feel dizzy. I lent forward and put my head between my legs; I woke up a few minutes later in a pool of blood, my neck in a grotesquely twisted position, my wife on her knees beside me.”

Kureishi continued, “I then experienced what can only be described a scooped, semi-circular object with talons attached scuttling towards me. Using what was left of my reason, I saw this was my hand, an uncanny object over which I had no agency.” “It occurred to me then that there was no coordination between what was left of my mind and what remained of my body. I had become divorced from myself. I believed I was dying. I believed I had three breaths left.” “From the floor my wife heard my frantic shouting,” he added. “She saved my life and kept me calm. For a few days I was profoundly traumatised, altered and unrecognisable to myself. I am in the hospital. I cannot move move my arms and legs.” “I cannot scratch my nose, make a phone call or feed myself. As you can imagine, this is both humiliating, degrading and a burden for others. I’ve had an operation on my spine and have shown minor improvements in the last few days.”

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Kureishi said he would begin physiotherapy and rehabilitation soon and praised the doctors and nurses at Rome’s Gemelli hospital for their kindness, competence, and care. “At the moment, it is unclear whether I will ever be able to walk again, or whether I’ll ever be able to hold a pen, if there is any assistance that I would be grateful for, it would be with regard to voice assisted hardware and software, which will allow me to watch, write and begin work again, and continue some kind of half life,” he explained. Kureishi remains hospitalized in Rome. Across the pond, he is best known for writing the 1985 cross-cultural romance Laundrette screenplay, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and directed by Stephen Frears, as well as the 1993 miniseries The Buddha of Suburbia with David Bowie as the composer and performer of the music. In 1986, Kureishi was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar but won the Whitebread Book Award (now known as the Costa Book Award) for Buddha of Suburbia, his debut novel. As a writer of critical essays on British culture, economics, and racial realities, Kureishi was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2008.