Back in 2008, while filming the ninth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Mariska Hargitay, the actress behind Olivia Benson, suffered a serious injury due to a stunt gone awry. The 57-year-old star was engaged in a scene that involved “chasing a bad guy” when she made a leap that resulted in a microscopic bleed in her lung.
In an interview with Redbook, Mariska recalled the harrowing experience: “I jumped and landed on pads, but on the second take, something went wrong. I landed incorrectly and immediately felt something off inside. Initially, I thought I had just had the wind knocked out of me and felt frustrated with myself.”
Mariska explained that she didn’t realize the severity of her injury until three months later. “At first, I seemed to get better, but then two weeks later, I started experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath. My grandfather died of a heart attack at 34, and my mom passed away at the same age, so I feared it might be a heart attack. But then someone pointed out that my heart was on the other side!”
Her condition took a drastic turn on New Year’s Day in 2009 when she felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her chest. Rushed to the hospital, doctors discovered her right lung was 50 percent collapsed. “I began to panic. I was so scared,” she admitted. Despite undergoing a procedure to avoid more serious surgery, it failed, and she had to have surgery two weeks later.
Unfortunately, her lung collapsed again three months later, a rare occurrence with a statistical chance of “one out of 1,000,” necessitating another surgery.
Thankfully, Mariska made a full recovery and has continued to shine, appearing in 14 more seasons of SVU and its spinoff series, Law & Order: Organized Crime, alongside her former co-star Christopher Meloni.