Celebrity Gossip
Eric Saindon Rushed Into Surgery After Accepting Oscar Award
Eric Saindon, an American visual effects artist who received an Oscar on Sunday for his work on Avatar: The Way of Water, was taken to the hospital during the ceremony in great discomfort and finally had surgery to repair a tiny intestinal rupture.
At the ceremony on Sunday, March 12, Saindon, 53, shared the Best Visual Effects Academy Award with Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, and Daniel Barrett. On James Cameron’s blockbuster film, he worked as a senior visual effects supervisor.
He had been experiencing “severe pains” all day, according to his mother Lila Saindon, who told NBC station News Center Maine that Saindon had visited a hospital before the wedding as a result.
Doctors speculated that Saindon could be dealing with appendicitis, and then kidney stones.
He was treated for pain – but ‘determined to be at the Oscars,’ according to his mother – he put his tuxedo on while at the hospital, heading to the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
After accepting his award at the show with his three colleagues, Saindon was transported back to the hospital via limousine.
It was later determined he had a rupture in his small intestine, which doctors operated on.
A rep for the VFX production company Weta FX told Entertainment Tonight Monday that Saindon is ‘doing okay and recovering as we speak,’ adding, ‘I’m just glad he left when he did. A rupture is serious stuff.’
Saindon’s mother told the station that he was subsequently transferred to the intensive care unit of the hospital.
He will not be cleared to return to his home in New Zealand for around a month, according to his mother.
The Oscars victory was the first for Saindon, who was previously nominated for Best Achievement in Visual Effects twice (along with Letteri) for his work on 2012’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and 2013’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
The Avatar team prevailed over other nominees in the category from the films All Quiet on the Western Front, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Batman and Top Gun: Maverick.
