Just a few days ago, Prison Break star Dominic Purcell revealed a startling injury from the set of the upcoming drama via social media. The image featured the actor sporting several raw-looking lacerations on his head and forehead, as well as plenty of tape supporting a broken nose. While injuries do occasionally happen on the set of famous TV shows, this one was particularly horrifying, and now Purcell has spoken out about the terrible incident that led to injury and the nightmare related to getting treated afterward.
Dominic Purcell was filming a scene on a prison set when an extra ran into him. Purcell pushed him off, which set off a chain of events leading to a giant iron rod smacking him in the head. Here's what happened:
It was a scene where I was running into the prison, and I felt this extraordinary explosion on my head that I'd never experienced. It wasn't like someone was slowly cutting my arm kind of pain; it was this sudden explosion. I dropped to my knees, and I was in shock. It was like, what the fuck has just happened to me? And then I'm just leaning over and the blood is just pouring out like a shower, and my stunt guy came up beside me, and I looked at him and said, 'Dude, what the f**k's going on? What happened?' And he said, 'Your head's split right open, I can see your skull, your nose is on the other side of your face.' I kind of just sat there for a moment in shock. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say this --- I expected that I was either going to black out or die, because in my brain, when he said my skull was showing, I just assumed that my skull was cracked, and blood was going to go into my brain, and I was going to fucking die in Morocco. I thought I was going to die...
Anyone who has ever suffered a bad injury knows how unpleasant it can be, but a person would really have to be in rough shape and totally out of it to feel as if they are on the precipice of death. But Dominic Purcell said that his skull was literally split open. To make things worse, he was rushed to a hospital in Ouarzazate that wasn't medically equipped to actually handle his major injuries. Purcell told Deadline that he was then rushed to a second medical facility in the area. He was in shock and partially out of it and just heard doctors arguing over who would take the call as he bled out on the table. His 'gal' AnnaLynne poured alcohol on his injury and got him the heck outta there. Eventually he was fixed up in Casablanca. After all that, it's no wonder Purcell thought that the Prison Break injury might do him in.
Eventually, he had a doctor re-break his nose and reset it. He also needed 150 stitches on his head, more stitches on his nose and another 20 at his elbow, which also suffered a laceration. Cuts near his eyebrow and all along his arms are also currently in the process of healing. Here's what that looked like:
The injury only occurred on May 30, yet he's pretty much a badass and is already back to filming. Not bad for someone who thought they were dying less than two weeks ago.
As far as Prison Break goes, the Fox series isn't expected to hit the schedule until midseason. Thus, the show should still be on track, despite having to deal with an untimely injury. You can see what else Fox and the networks have coming up this summer with our summer TV premiere schedule.
