A man famous for his bizarre career, sword swallowing, was hospitalized after the swords he was swallowing caused life-threatening injuries during a performance at a Six Flags Theme Park.
First responders were called to Six Flags over a month ago, on October 31, due to a severe medical emergency. About halfway into his live performance at the Washington, DC venue, he started to feel sick following a stint where he swallowed five swords.
Over a month after his hospitalization, Scott Nelson, also known as “Murrugun The Mystic,” said he was feeling better and was thankful he survived.
During an interview, Nelson said that at the time of the injuries, he felt his chest was full of something and found it extremely hard to breathe. The stuntman said once he started to feel that, he knew he was in trouble and thought he was about to die.
The 59-year-old performer uses dull, pointed swords. The swords are usually about half an inch wide and can be between 24 inches and 28 inches long. He said he had been in the business of swallowing swords for over 25 years, and that was the second time he had had an accident with the blades.
According to Nelson, if he doesn’t want an accident, he holds the swords in a bunch because if he happens to let them go too soon, the blades start to scissor him. He said that is precisely what happened. He let go of the swords too soon, and they began to rock off each other.
Two swords cut through his esophagus, another cut his liver, and another pierced his lung.
Doctors performed several surgeries on him and then put him in a medically induced coma that lasted close to a month. When he woke up from the coma, a surgical team member first told him that the doctors and surgeons thought he would survive. Then he was told that they all thought he would die during his surgeries.
Fortunately, he survived the injuries, but doctors had to remove part of his lung.
The performance artist posted pictures of his gruesome scars and bruises from the unfortunate incident and the subsequent surgeries on social media. He wrote on the Facebook post expressing his shock at how bad his injuries were.
Nelson told reporters that his miraculous survival had a significant impact on him, and he experienced what he called a “spiritual awakening,” leading him to rethink his career.
Nelson vowed to stop swallowing swords saying that he could not put his mother through the pain of potentially losing her son ever again.
However, the self-appointed most dangerous man in show business said he would not abandon his passion altogether. He will perform other aspects of his show, like lying on nails and eating light bulbs, which his mother probably doesn’t approve of either.
Nelson opened a GoFundMe page to help cover his medical bills, and according to the page, he will remain hospitalized for at least another week. He will also be unable to work for about four months as he recovers, but he is looking at the optimistic side of the tragedy: he quit smoking and lost more than 50 pounds. So far, the page has raised about $5,770.
