Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Nicholas Brendon Suffering ‘Deep-Seated Medical Problems’ After Jail Time

One of Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s original stars suffers from “deep-seated medical problems” after spending some time in jail. Nicholas Brendon played Xander Harris in all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The 50-year-old actor, who also appeared on Criminal Minds, pulled out of all promotional duties involving his new film Wanton Want after spending time in an Indiana jail on felony prescription fraud charges (which was not his first arrest). Brendon’s manager, Theresa Fortier, tells The Daily Mail that Brendon pulled out because of medical issues and “immense pain.” She says that Brendon that sleeping on the concrete floor of his jail cell aggravated pre-existing back problems. He’s since experienced paralysis of the genitals and legs.

The condition is called Cauda equina syndrome. It is a condition where nerve roots in the lumbar spine become compressed. It limits movement and feeling and sometimes functions in the genitals, the bladder, and the bowel.

“Right now he is concentrating on his health. He is not doing promotion for the film,’ Fortier said. “This past week and a half, things have turned drastically worse. He is suffering from paralysis in his genitals and private parts. He has had difficulties with flying. Sadly his condition means he needs surgical intervention for his problems. I wish he was on the mend and able to promote this movie.”

In addition to this surgery, Brendon also needs knee surgery to address MCL and ACL tears. Frontier said that Brendon’s symptoms became more severe after his night in jail.

‘During the arrest they were not quite careful with his condition,” she said. ‘It has aggravated the symptoms of his previous injury and the paralysis is starting to reappear. He may have burst another disc or everything fell out of alignment. So sleeping on a cement floor with other inmates was not exactly conducive to healing and it aggravated his injury and since then he has been in immense pain with numbness and paralysis. The hospital needs to bring him in for another spinal surgery to correct whatever it is that has happened.’

While Frontier says Brendon has long suffered from back pain, the issue became more severe when he fell while visiting her home in Indiana in February. ‘He was visiting me at my home. He was on his way to an AirBnB after we had done a Facebook live.’ e had a fall on the ice and we got him to the emergency room. An MRI revealed issues with his lumbar, discs and spine. They did an emergency spinal surgery the very next day, where he had a spinal shave and a disc removal. He was told one wrong move could have left him with total paralysis. He had been recovering slowly, but the fall aggravated issues he had in his back. His heel was going numb, he suffered paralysis in his leg and saddle area, behind his trunk.’

In the thriller Wanton Want, Brendon plays a writer lured to a weekend getaway with friends only to discover that not everything is what it seems. The film debuts on Amazon Prime Video on September 28th.