Rock musician Jesse Malin has revealed the terrifying moment he fell to the floor in the middle of a restaurant, leaving him completely paralysing from the waist down.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Malin said he was having dinner at a restaurant in New York’s East Village on May 4 when he suddenly felt a burning pain in his lower back, which slowly migrated to his hips, thighs, and into his heels, leading to him collapsing on the restaurant floor.
“Everybody was standing above me like in Rosemary’s Baby, saying all these different things, and I was there not knowing what was going on with my body,” Malin said.
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Though he was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital in an ambulance, he has been paralysed from the waist down ever since, having suffered a spinal cord infarction, a stroke that occurs within the spinal cord or in the arteries that supply it.
After arriving at hospital, Malin, 56, has undergone a number of spinal procedures before being transferred to a rehabilitation centre on May 18.
He has since been completing three rounds of physical therapy and rehabilitation per day, with his doctor’s short-term goal being to get around and do daily tasks without the use of his legs. Though he says he will be discharged later this month, the singer – who is known for his energetic stage performances – will be confined to a wheelchair while he recovers.
“This is the hardest six weeks that I’ve ever had,” he shared, “I’m told that they don’t really understand it, and they’re not sure of the chances. The reports from the doctors have been tough, and there’s moments in the day where you want to cry, and where you’re scared. But I keep saying to myself that I can make this happen. I can recover my body.”
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The sudden decline in health really interferes with his personal mantra of “P.M.A” – positive mental attitude, that he often preached about.
“It’s almost like a joke. Like, ‘You talk all this P.M.A.? Well, see how you deal with this,'” he said.
He recalled one vulnerable moment during his recovery, where “they took me outside for the first time the other day in a wheelchair, and I went through the lobby and I could see the sun shining through the glass, and I just started bawling.
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“It felt like I was watching myself in this movie. I didn’t know this person. By the time I got to the corner, I got myself together and into a park, and just breathed in the air.”
Malin – who has collaborated with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Billie Joe Armstrong, Ryan Adams, and many more – was reluctant to share the news with his fans at first, sharing that the experience of not being able to walk is “very humbling”.
“I didn’t want to get into the extremity of it. And now it’s just time to let people know… There’s something liberating about the truth, that this is what’s happening to me right now,” he said.
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Though he believes that the illness is temporary, he pointed out, “I’m not going to walk out of here tomorrow with a leather jacket and a cane and go hang out at the bar. It’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of being in a wheelchair.”
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