“Catfish” star Nev Schulman said he’s lucky to have survived a crash last week involving his electric bike and a truck on Long Island.
“I broke my neck,” he posted on Instagram alongside photos from Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. “C5 and C6 to be exact. Stable fractures. I’m not paralyzed.”
Schulman said he was on the way to picking up his son from school Monday when the crash occurred. What happened next is a bit foggy.
“I was alone on impact. Me and the truck. And then I guess the pavement,” he wrote. “I was alone and unconscious. And then conscious.”
The 39-year-old documentary filmmaker parlayed his success with “Catfish,” a 2010 movie about fake identities online, by creating the MTV series “Catfish: The TV Show,” dealing with the same subject matter.
The story he told on Instagram appears very real.
“It’s true what they say — life can change in an instant,” he wrote.
According to Schulman, his wreck came a day after he and his family spent a sunny Sunday fishing. Most of their catches were thrown back into the water, “because they were too cute,” he said. He expressed gratitude for the day and for the fact he hadn’t yet picked up his son Monday when he collided with a truck.
Schulman is also appreciative of the fact his injuries weren’t as bad as they could’ve been.
“I’m lucky to be here, alive, standing and hugging my family, projected to make a full recovery,” Schulman wrote. “And I’m really starting to understand the meaning of gratitude.”
The C5-C6 vertebrae Schulman injured are located near the bottom of the neck and “provides flexibility and support to much of the neck and the head above,” according to Spine-health.com.
