Jorma Taccone is recovering from a near-death experience after the Lonely Island member and former Saturday Night Live writer suffered a 20-foot fall from a ladder that left him with a shattered pelvis and detached sacrum.
Taccone, 48, shared his shocking story in a call from his hospital bed to The Lonely Island & Seth Meyers Podcast Tuesday, revealing that doctors have said it will be three to six months before he is able to walk again.
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Taccone revealed that he was painting a mural on a barn at his home for his daughter’s 5th birthday when the fall occurred. “I’m using this ladder that my neighbor let me borrow, and he was like, ‘Hey, this ladder is bad, like, you shouldn’t use this ladder. This doesn’t have a footing thing,’” Taccone told Meyers and his Lonely Island collaborators Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer. “I was like, ‘It’ll be good.’”
Taccone was “almost done” with the mural when the fall occurred. “When this happens, I’m probably 20 feet off the ground on this very rickety ladder, and I have it diagonal,” he shared. “The legs are not good, the base of the ladder is not good.”
The moment he felt the ladder give out from under him, Taccone said his “life flashes before my eyes.” The comedian recalled, “I’m like, ‘Oh no, I’ve got to get off this ladder.’ I had enough time as I’m falling to be like, ‘I’m going to die.’”
He continued, “I drop, I look over, I see the yard, I’m like, this is going to hurt a lot. I fall straight on my butt, taking all of the impact on my butt. Then I do a lot of screaming and cursing. Keep in mind, it’s my daughter’s fifth birthday party, so it wasn’t the coolest way to start the day. I’m like, ‘Call an ambulance!’”
After being transported to the hospital, Taccone underwent surgery to repair his shattered pelvis and detached sacrum. “A disc is bad now, so they have to chuck that out,” he said. “It takes a while to schedule the surgery because they wanted to do the front part and back part as well.”
Taccone has been able to get up with assistance, but doctors say it will take within three to six months for him to get “back to all of the stuff that you normally do” with the help of intensive rehab.
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