On the mend. Kevin Hart has made significant progress following back surgery that stemmed from his September car accident, according to a physical therapist.
“He’s in the advanced stage [of recovery], for sure,” Dr. Karena Wu, who does not work with Hart, tells Us Weekly exclusively. “So, the advanced stage, you’re back to normal function and … his spine can tolerate the weight and the impact force. So he’s fully loading the spine so that he can get back to sport-specific function or anything job-related for work.”
Despite his improvement, which he showed off in a Tuesday, October 29, Instagram video, Wu expects Hart, 40, to need “18 months to two years” to be “100 percent normal” again.
Wu notes that the actor is likely feeling much better, though: “Depending on what’s going on in there, if they’ve gotten the pressure off of the nerves, he’s probably in low-grade pain, not severe pain because if he’s doing sports drills like that, he’s probably not in a tremendous amount of pain.”
The ActiveCare Physical Therapy owner explains that Hart was doing stability exercises and wearing what appeared to be an unloading brace — to take pressure off of the spinal column — in the post. Wu also points out that the comedian was wearing an electrical stim, which is used for pain modulation or to wake up muscles.
The Jumanji: The Next Level star was hospitalized in September after his 1970 Plymouth Barracuda veered off the road and ended up in a ditch in the Calabasas neighborhood of Los Angeles. He underwent back surgery and completed therapy at an in-patient rehab facility for nearly two weeks.
“Basically what you realize is that you’re not in control,” Hart said in the video earlier this week. “No matter how much you think you’re in control, you’re not in control. And at the end of the day, it can all be over, man.”
A source told Us earlier this month that the Ride Along actor had “a long way to go in his recovery” as he returned to work. “He is receiving physical therapy daily,” the insider said. “He is working very hard to rebuild his strength and come back strong. He can walk on his own but is nowhere near full recovery or ready to do action scenes. He is taking it very slowly.”
With reporting by Marc Lupo
