Tracy Morgan Honors Nurse Who Cared for Him After Crash: 'She Said Everything's Gonna Be All Right'
One of Tracy Morgan‘s caregivers in the hospital after his near-fatal 2014 car crash just received a huge honor from the comedian.
Gina Domingo, a nurse in the brain trauma unit at the Hackensack Meridian Health JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute who cared for the 30 Rock star during his recovery, was presented with the Tracy Morgan Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation Nursing this week after a show at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, New Jersey on February 21.
When presenting the nurse of 30 years with the accolade, Morgan remembered Domingo’s steadfast encouragement, even when he found it difficult to be positive.
“She wouldn’t even look at me, she said everything’s gonna be all right,” Morgan said, according to ABC 7. “She would take me outside and read and let me be outside in the air. I was so angry, I was so scared.”
Morgan has spoken several times about the tragic accident in June 2014 that left him in a coma for two weeks and killed his friend and fellow comedian James McNair, 62.
.@TracyMorgan presented the “Tracy Morgan Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation Nursing” to Gina Domingo, RN, CRNN, a nurse in the Brain Trauma Unit @HMHNewJersey JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Center, following his comedy show @basiecenter. #njhealthcare #braininjury #braintrauma pic.twitter.com/Sc1lAz9VbV
— Hackensack Meridian (@HMHNewJersey) February 22, 2020
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Last year, Morgan commemorated the five-year anniversary of the accident that changed his life forever.
“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss my friend Jimmy Mac, who sadly lost his life that night,” he wrote on Twitter. “I love you Jimmy .I thank GOD for my family. I am eternally grateful for the love and support they give me. My wife, daughter, sons, and friends are what got me back on my feet. I live every day trying to do right by them and the most of this second chance.”
Morgan told PEOPLE in 2017 that he was motivated to get back on stage after the accident because he “had a story to tell.”
“I got hit by a truck, it was a great story. So that’s what happened. I had a story to tell,” he said ahead of Netflix special Staying Alive, in which he talks about the accident.
“When anything ever bad happened to me, I made it funny and I turned it good,” he explained. “This was a bad thing that happened to me. I wanted to tell my story, but I also want to continue my standup career because all the great things that ever happened to me in my life came through standup.”
Morgan continued: “All the great things came through standup. I’m just continuing it. Why would I stop? [The accident] wasn’t going to stop me. As long as I could stand up and grab the mic, I was going to tell my story.”
