Using a cane, the actor hobbled into his Jimmy Kimmel appearance Monday to discuss the harrowing incident, and he seemed to be in great spirits despite his horrible injuries from which he's still recovering four months later.

As you know, Renner was almost killed on New Year's Day when he tried to stop a snow-removal tractor from hitting his nephew and was crushed under the weight of the machine.

Renner described to Kimmel his good fortune after getting hit by the snowcat. He said, "It's like a giant metal-like cookie roller, right? And it just missed every vertebra, did not hit any organs, membrane did not swell - my eye did pop out, that's weird. But I got pretty lucky that none of the organs got messed up."

Renner said his first thought was to protect his nephew, Alex, as the snowplow started rolling down the hill. After he was critically injured, Renner said he was concerned about how his nephew was dealing with the trauma of seeing his uncle torn apart. "I did not see any of this stuff, but the blood and the thing and the eye, and all that stuff right? I had to see what [Alex's] perspective was.'"

Renner also said he remembered everything after the accident for 45 minutes, but then his memory went blank once he was transported to the first of two hospitals. He said doctors jammed an "emergency knife" into his chest and "I was like, "I got to go to sleep."

Renner went on to say he personally knew the first responders, all of whom seemed to think he was going to die. But, Renner told them, "No, man. I'm trying to get out of the hospital as soon as I was in it." I'm like, "I'm out of here."

At one point during the interview, Kimmel produced a photo of Renner in the hospital after the accident. Renner said his mom probably shot the image and then thanked his family -- who was in the audience -- for all of their support.

He also vowed to return to the first hospital -- from which he got booted -- to apologize for his erratic behavior while on heavy medications.