credit: Somewhere in Time
Actor Christopher Reeve’s life was cut entirely too short. The man famous for portraying Superman died too early at the age of 52 in a New York Hospital. His wife and son were left without a husband and a father, and the world mourned the loss of a great actor. Christopher Reeve, if you remember correctly, led a tragic life. What should have been a life filled with energy, superstardom, and fame, was a life filled with trauma, pain, and poor health. His fans – and those who didn’t get to know him when he was alive – want to know more about Christopher Reeve’s accident and the moment that forever changed the course of the actor’s life.
Christopher Reeve Was Never the Picture of Perfect Health
Most of his fans know that his tragic accident in 1995 changed his life forever, but many are unaware that he was never as healthy as he seemed. Unfortunately, Christopher Reeve’s accident was just the tip of the iceberg for the talented actor. He grew up struggling with his health. He lived with asthma since childhood and was also diagnosed with a myriad of allergies when he was young. By the time he was old enough to secure his driver’s license, he had begun to lose his hair.
It was discovered he suffered from alopecia areata. He was losing patches of hair despite being healthy otherwise, and he had to manage that. He never lost all of his hair at once, and he was always able to manage the situation. For many of his roles, he donned a wig. In other roles, he styled his hair so that his bald spots were not visible. There were also times in his life when he didn’t have any hair loss for a period. It was often unexpected, unexplained, and unplanned.
credit: Superman II
Christopher Reeve’s Drug Reactions
Throughout his life, one thing was certain. He was a man who often did not respond well to medication. His body, for whatever reason, rejected many medications his doctors tried to give him. One such incident occurred when he was hospitalized and given a medication called Sygen. His heart stopped following anaphylactic shock. The actor experienced an out-of-body moment when he felt it was his time to go, and he watched from above as doctors and nurses worked on his body. He was later brought back to life.
Christopher Reeve’s Accident and the Tragic Years That Followed
Though he suffered from a myriad of health concerns and an aversion to medications throughout his life, he was otherwise a healthy man. He was strong, fit, and handsome, and no one thought that one moment of his life would change it forever. His role in the film Anna Karenina allowed Reeve to discover his love of horses. Allergic to them, he had to use antihistamines to ride, but he learned he loved it, and he began his equestrian lifestyle in 1985. He had no idea it would change his life a decade later. He began riding regularly, and he loved it.
On May 27, 1995, Christopher Reeve fell off of his horse during an event in Virginia. He landed on his head, and his first and second vertebrae were shattered. He was left paralyzed. Reeve had no feeling or movement in his body from the neck down. The rest of his life was spent in a wheelchair. The accident caused him to question his own life, and he told his wife that perhaps she should let him go. She refused, and his kids refused. He never considered dying again.
credit: Superman II
Christopher Reeve’s Death
For more than nine years, Christopher Reeve lived his life in a wheelchair. He grieved so much in that time but vowed that his life as a paralyzed man would not be in vain. He began working to advocate for causes he loved. Reeve began writing books to help others, and he began doing whatever he felt he could to help the world. By 2004, his health was causing issues again. It was October, and he developed a pressure ulcer. The ulcer caused sepsis, and he was being treated for it. This was far from the first time that he dealt with this particular health problem, and no one thought anything of it. A week or so later, he went out to watch his son play hockey.
Following his son’s hockey game, Christopher Reeve took an antibiotic for his infection, and it caused him to go into cardiac arrest. The event caused him to slip into a coma, and he never woke. He died on October 10, 2004, in a New York hospital.
