Jack Abbott, the patriarch of the Abbott family, has been away for a few weeks on an unplanned business trip, as shown on THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS. But there was a real-life reason why Peter Bergman, who played Jack in the serial opera, had to immediately take a break from acting. In order to fix a detached retina, Bergman had to have immediate eye surgery, as he described to Soap Opera Digest.
Bergman’s medical emergency seemed to come out of nowhere. The actor spotted an odd occurrence on the inside corner of his left eye while en route to see his family on California’s central coast, but he kept it a secret. He recounted, “All through the evening, I was seeing something creeping into my vision, and towards the conclusion of that night, it was like a curtain closing in toward the center of my seeing.
The following morning, when Bergman awoke, he was already aware that something was very wrong. Fortunately, his sister managed to get him a consultation with a nearby ophthalmologist in San Luis Obispo who determined that the problem was a detached retina. Bergman would require emergency surgery to restore his vision, which the specialist advised having done at home. Luckily, Bergman’s wife Mariellen knew the sister-in-law of the suggested Los Angeles doctor, and the actor already had a booked appointment for the following day.
Before having surgery, Bergman informed his Y&R superiors, and a strategy for Jack’s abrupt departure was developed. Particularly during an extremely hard rehabilitation, the compassion from his coworkers “made me feel really unique.” For seven days, he claimed, “I had to maintain my face parallel to the floor for 50 minutes out of every hour.” Thanks to a unique “contraption” Mariellen set up, Bergman was able to watch television, but noted that “My favorite activities are exercising and reading books, and I could do neither one.” It seemed to take an eternity.
Castmate Mishael Morgan (Amanda), who underwent the same surgery herself last spring, was a big help to Bergman during the trauma. He said, “I gathered as much information on what to expect from her as I could.” She was outstanding.
The Emmy winner is thrilled about Jack’s upcoming “really good stuff” and is relieved to be back at work at Y&R. And he is quite appreciative of the successful resolution of his medical emergency. It was a fantastic adventure and a brief contact with blindness, he said. “It served as a sobering reminder of the value of sight. Never consider it a given.
