2023 Oscars: Eric Saindon Was Rushed Into Surgery After Receiving His Academy 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 event.

Doctors hypothesized that Saindon might have appendicitis before developing kidney stones.

Although he was receiving pain relief, his mother said he was "determined to be at the Oscars" and got his tuxedo on while still in the hospital before leaving for the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Saindon was limoed back to the hospital after winning his medal at the presentation alongside his three colleagues.

It was eventually discovered that he had a ruptured small intestine, which was surgically repaired.

'I'm just pleased he left when he did,' said a representative for the VFX production company Weta FX to Entertainment Tonight on Monday, adding that Saindon is 'doing okay and healing as we speak.'  "A rupture is no laughing matter."

Saindon was then sent to the hospital's intensive care unit, according to his mother, who spoke to the station.

According to his mother, he won't be able to go back to his house in New Zealand for around a month.

Saindon won his first Oscar after being nominated twice (together with Letteri) for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for his work on the films The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013).

The Avatar crew triumphed over other contenders in the category from the movies The Batman, Top Gun: Maverick, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and All Quiet on the Western Front.