Was the victim of a drunk driving accident as a passenger in a taxi while vacationing on Tortola, British Virgin Islands in April 2014. Both he and his oldest brother Michael were critically injured. O'Donnell credits his "NBC family" for arranging medivac flights for Lawrence to be flown back to New York City, and for Michael to be flown back to Boston for necessary surgeries to be performed where each of their families were located. Lawrence was operated on at The Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, a nationally ranked hospital for orthopedic (bone) surgeries. Lawrence opened with his account of this horrific, but ultimately life affirming ("I'm lucky to be alive...") episode of his life on his return to the anchor chair for his MSNBC program, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell (2010) on Monday, June 23, 2014.