NEED TO KNOW
Buff Bagwell’s right leg was recently amputated after he was seriously injured in a car accident in August 2020
The World Champion Wrestling star had undergone “several surgeries” over the past five years, but his leg never healed
Bagwell now hopes to return to wrestling following his amputation surgery
Marcus “Buff” Bagwell recently had his leg amputated following a 2020 car accident.
In a video posted on YouTube on Friday, July 18, the World Champion Wrestling star, 55, revealed that he had an above-the-knee amputation on his right leg due to injuries he sustained in a car accident in August 2020.
Joined by his fiancée Stacy Brown in the video, Bagwell recalled the incident, stating, “I’d been drinking, but just a few beers … I’m going down the road with a Diet Coke, and I am gone … It was like a dream.”
“I remember cars, seeing faces look at me like, ‘What are you doing?’ … [and] somehow I got off the wrong exit and I ended up behind the mall, and somehow, that’s where it all came to the end, where I drove through a men’s and women’s bathroom,” he continued.
Photos from the crash were then shown in the video. A brick building had collapsed, and Bagwell’s vehicle could be seen destroyed.
Bagwell said the impact of the crash caused the dashboard of his vehicle to hit him “in my right patellar tendons,” which ruined his kneecap.
“That started this whole five-year journey of trying to fix my leg,” he further explained, also adding that no one else was hurt or died due to the accident.
After the crash, Bagwell said he stayed in the hospital for “several weeks” and had 39 to 40 surgeries for knee replacements, flap surgeries and extension-mechanism repairs.
“That led me into the deepest, darkest [alcohol] addiction I’ve ever been in,” he recalled. “My leg wasn’t healing, and so I was super depressed.”
Bagwell said he then entered rehab for his drinking in August 2022. Shortly after that, he ran into more health complications, and he had one final right knee extensor mechanism repair surgery, but it “got infected” and “led to the amputation.”
Maven Huffman/YouTube
Bagwell after his leg amputation surgery
Despite his injuries, Bagwell credited recent times as “the best years of my life,” stating, “I’m not mad about it by no means.”
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Bagwell also said in his video that he plans to eventually return to the ring following his surgery.
“I’m gonna be able to run, and I’m going to be able to run better. I want to get back in the ring, hit the ropes, have a match,” he said. “You don’t have to give up with something like this … I’m going to show the world that you can have just as good a life with or without a leg.”
Read the original article on People
