Worst Porn Injuries: The Physical Toll of Filming Adult Movies (On & Off Camera)

Have you ever stopped to consider what goes into making your favorite masturbatory films? 

When you’re shooting porn, shit happens. It’s not hard to figure out why, either! 

A combination of lube, sweat, video camera equipment, and bodily fluids is the perfect storm for unfortunate tragedies, unwanted penile fractures, and even (unfortunately) abuse. Adriana Chechik has been on the receiving end of numerous porn injuries, and she’s not the only one to go through it. 

You might think that adult film stars lead exciting lives with sex, drugs, and alcohol at every turn. Sometimes, you’d be right. However, when shit goes off the rails, being a porn actor is one of the most physically demanding jobs on the planet.

That’s not to mention the frightening prevalence of penile fractures, vaginal tears and anal prolapse. Doesn’t sound good, does it? It’s not.

What Are The Worst Porn Injury Horror Stories?

Below I’ve put together a list of the worst physical injuries endured by adult film stars.

While most of these injuries were sustained while the cameras were rolling, there are other unfortunate examples of injuries sustained behind the scenes.

Needless to say, if you thought working in the porn business was all glamor and California sunshine, you’d be sorely mistaken. It’s a punishing job and a relentless lifestyle.

1. Adriana Chechik – Broke Her Neck, Her Spine, and Even Her Back

First up on the list is Adriana Chechik. She’s gotten down to business with her former foster dad, refused to bang a black guy until she got turned onto the idea by a fetish that’s called sploshing, and famously went against doctor’s orders to participate in countless gangbangs with 10+ men. 

She ultimately ended up with a pinched nerve, slipped disk, and misaligned vertebrae. She even says that her brain stem came out of its socket. This might sound excessive, but I wouldn’t put anything past the anal queen. Still, those injuries pale in comparison to her most recent incident. 

Adriana’s worst injury to date happened at a SFW event, which is pretty ironic considering how many scenes she’s been a part of. She attended TwitchCon in 2022 and jumped into a shallow foam pit. Unfortunately, she landed directly on her tailbone and broke her back in two places. 

It doesn’t help that she was pregnant when the entire thing happened. I’ve linked the video here, but it’s pretty graphic. Squeamish readers, look away. She later had a surgery to put a meter rod in her back, which is pretty intensive. Luckily, 2 years later, she’s finally on the road to recovery. 

She’s still using back braces to support her lumbar spine, and she’s had to make the transition from doing OnlyFans to doing AI porn as the result of her injuries. However, she can walk and move around thanks to the physical therapy she underwent after getting her surgery finished. 

It might suck that we don’t get to see any more scenes with Adriana Chechik, but she’s far from finished – her AI porn project is doing numbers, and she’s safe at home. I’d call that a win-win. 

2. Angela White – Thought Her Appendix Ruptured

Angela White got pounded so hard that she thought her appendix ruptured. To be fair, when you have nine and a half inches of solid steel rearranging your organs, something’s gotta move. She was filming for an hour with fellow (and generously endowed) pornstar Kiernan Lee. 

He realized that something was wrong with Angela after they finished filming, but he didn’t know just how bad it was until she was rushed to the hospital. She was initially told by her doctor that she had a ruptured appendix, but upon further investigation she realized she had appendicitis. 

Either way, her poor appendix was getting yanked out of her stomach in the operating room. 

Kiernan told the Pillow Talk podcast, “She said her stomach’s hurting and had to go see a doctor – apparently her appendix burst in the scene, which could have killed her.” Lee implied that their sex position was the culprit, but Angela had other thoughts about the matter. 

Angela told the Only Stans podcast, “There is no medical evidence to suggest his giant dick, that was pummeling my organs, that his million dollar penis was the cause of that.” She later clarified that she still had to go through with emergency surgery for her appendicitis, admitting that “Lee does reach organs that I don’t know should be reached by a penis.” 

She got her unintentional revenge during a later scene with Kiernan, during which she suffered from lockjaw and bit down on Lee’s testicle. Accident or no accident, Lee called the incident his “most painful experience” he’s ever had during a porno shoot. I guess karma comes full circle!

3. Liam Ellis – Endured A Penile Fracture & Snapped His Dick

Liam Ellis was smack-dab in the middle of an MFM (two guys, one girl) threesome when tragedy struck.

In the heat of the moment, he slipped out and didn’t realize until he’d fractured his sexual member. He said that the damage didn’t hurt much in the midst of the adrenaline, but he noticed that “my penis swelled up straight away and after a few hours it went black from bruising.” 

Needless to say, he was forced to undergo emergency surgery to get his pecker up and running. Even though he’s concerned that things might never work the same way down there again, he’s found the silver lining – in addition to being more cautious during his porn shoots, Liam was able to get a free circumcision.

He went from selling drugs to selling his body for the masses, which we believe is a more honorable way of making your money after doing a stint in Aussie prison. 

It’s not yet known if Liam slipped out of the girl or the guy he was porking, so we can only speculate!

4. Rico Strong – Got Stuck In Perpetual Erection Limbo

Pornstars are known to pop Cialis like candy, and when that doesn’t work, good old Trimix is here to save the day. Trimix is an erectile dysfunction drug that needs to be injected into the base of the penis. These sorts of drugs are also taken for stamina and endurance purposes. 

Unfortunately, Rico Strong’s prowess backfired when his rock-hard erection wouldn’t go down. This condition is commonly known as priapism, and it’s identical to having a heart attack of the penis. Rico had to get his penis drained after he said it was “solid as a rock for 18 hours.” 

He posted about his situation on Instagram and Facebook, but the pictures of the aftermath are very graphic. Click this link at your own risk if you want to see why Caverject is prescription-only. Although doctors had considered amputating Rico’s penis at some point, he was able to bounce back from the surgery in due time.

He’s back out there shooting and performing better than ever, just as we’d expect from one of the most prolific black pornstars of all time.

Still, Rico isn’t the only pornstar who’s gotten in trouble with Trimix or Caverject. Gay porn star Ryan Rose was also hospitalized with a broken dick after using the drug to stay hard during a particularly intense scene. Using injectable ED drugs is common practice in the porn industry. 

It’s only a matter of time until another high-profile case makes the news. 

5. Christy Mack – Beaten By An MMA Fighter & Almost Died As A Result

Okay, this didn’t happen during filming, but it was a story that shook the porn industry.

Christy Mack was a well-known name by the MMA community around ten years ago back when “War Machine” (Jon Koppenhaver) was still dominating his competition in the cage. 

He boasts a 14-5-0 (Win-Loss-Draw) record, and he last fought in October 2013 before assaulting his ex-girlfriend. He was convicted on 29 of 34 charges that included first-degree kidnapping with the use of a deadly weapon, coercing witnesses, and sexual assault. 

He broke into Christy’s house and found her in bed with another man. On the morning of Aug. 8 2014, he saw her laying next to her boyfriend, Corey Thomas. This sent him into a rage, and he nearly killed her – Christy’s account of the moments leading up to her near-death experience is nothing short of harrowing. She stated, “This was a whole new level I had never experienced.” 

According to Christy and Thomas, War Machine came into the house, jumped on top of Thomas first, and started punching him in the face. This inspired Christy to call the authorities, which War Machine obviously didn’t like very much. He turned on her and terrorized her for two hours. She stated, “He punched my teeth out, he broke my nose, my complete eye socket was fractured.” 

She also said that she “could hear him going through the drawers downstairs and finding knives. I knew this was my chance, this was my only chance. If I don’t leave now, I will die.” Eventually, she fled through her back door and climbed the fence before begging her neighbor to call 911. 

During the trial, Christy revealed the chilling words that War Machine uttered when he saw her laying down bloodied on the bathroom floor. “Now I have to kill you. I’ve gone too far. You can’t be seen like this. Everyone’s gonna know.” He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 36 years. Christy said that, “I do feel quite a bit safer with him being away for that amount of time…I do feel that justice has been served.”  

6. Alexa Cruz – Numerous Infections Despite Frequent STD Testing

Alexa Cruz, who now goes by the name Vanessa Belmond, is a former adult actress who had it worse than most pornstars. She launched a website called AntiPornography.org in the aftermath of her experiences, and even though we like our X-rated films, it’s hard not to have some sympathy.

She revealed the horrific treatment she was subjected to on a British TV show called Date My Porn Star. “I had chlamydia about three or four times. I had gonorrhea. I had bacterial infections a lot. And the testing, I thought, was keeping me safe. Because they make it seem like, ‘Well everyone’s tested.” They may have been doing fake tests with the prevalence of STDs on set. 

The TV show actually followed three British porn fans to Los Angeles, where they met with her for the first time as she regaled her story. Her words touched the participants, and one of them said he wouldn’t be able to look at porn the same way again.

Belmond revealed that she initially wanted to do “soft porn”, which translates to nude modeling without getting too raunchy. However, she soon realized that she’d have to surpass her limits if she wanted to make money. This led her to perform oral, anal, and vaginal sex much too often. 

She endured vaginal tears, anal fissures, and even throat bleeding from the frequency of her scenes. She also took prescription painkillers just to make it through scenes without crying in pain. Vanessa isn’t the only person who’s reported contracting STDs on the set of a porn film. 

Three other people contracted HIV in Los Angeles and sparked a call to use condoms for STD prevention. Rod Daily, who tested positive alongside his porn actress girlfriend Cameron Bay, had this to say about the porn industry:  “Their main business is money, not the performers.”

7. Derrick Burts – Contracted HIV/AIDS On Set 

Speaking of HIV cases in the Los Angeles area, Derrick Burts revealed himself as “Patient Zeta” in a new story that reverberated across the porn industry. He regularly shot straight & gay porno scenes in California and Florida, but he thinks he contracted HIV during a gay shoot in Florida. 

He was told this information privately by clinic staff who traced his infection back to someone he had performed a scene with. This co-star was described to him as a “known positive.” He had also contracted chlamydia, gonorrhea, and herpes in the months leading up to his diagnosis.

He ended up testing positive for HIV in October at an Adult Industry Medical (AIM) Healthcare clinic. While none of his partners ended up contracting the disease after sleeping with him, AIM covered their asses by claiming that Derrick caught HIV on his own time. 

Needless to say, he disputed this dubious claim by saying he’s only had sex with his girlfriend outside of porn scenes. His girlfriend is also an adult actress, but she tested negative for HIV. 

Feeling frustrated with AIM’s lack of follow-through on their promises to get him a doctor and formulate a treatment plan, he visited the AIDS Healthcare Foundation for a second opinion. This organization is openly critical about AIM, and Derrick was warned not to contact them. 

He didn’t reveal who he was at first, but after he began receiving treatment, he told the clinic staff that he was Patient Zeta. 

In the wake of his diagnosis, he’s taken the opportunity to advocate for the straight porn industry to make condoms a mandatory part of every scene.

8. Eden Alexander – Beaten, Caned, and Subjected to Septic Poisoning

Eden Alexander was tied up, beaten, and caned for 35 minutes after consenting to a BDSM scene, but she had no idea the flogging would be that intense. She said to Collective Shout, “I’ve never received a beating like that before in my life. I have permanent scars up and down the backs of my thighs. It was all things I consented to, but I didn’t know quite the brutality of what was about to happen to me until I was in it.”

She was also the victim of 3 potentially lethal ailments.

Back in 2014, she contracted MRSA, which is a potentially lethal and extraordinarily painful skin infection. As a result of having MRSA, she also suffered from a severe bout of hypothyroidism called myxedema coma. On top of it all, she came down with septic poisoning in the hospital.

To make bad matters even worse, she launched a fundraiser and raised nearly $1,100 to cover her medical bills. However, WePay refused to release the funds because of the nature of her career. After receiving loads of well-deserved backlash, they reversed course (but still kept the money). 

Several sex workers spoke out against WePay’s blatant discrimination, which still exists to some degree today. That’s why OnlyFans threatened to remove adult content from their site. Payment processors like VISA & MasterCard have a hard-on for content creators trying to make a living. 

Luckily, Eden’s friend Kitty Fisher set up a new fundraiser on CrowdTilt. The high-profile incident garnered support from 230+ contributors, who raised well over $8,000 for Eden in just one day. She pulled through the trio of ailments, and she now remains in good health as far as we know. 

9. Lisa Ann – Got Her Leg Munched On By A Porn Fan

Before she started winning AVN awards as an adult actress, lovely minx Lisa Ann was a stripper in a past life. She spoke about an incident where a fan bit a chunk out of her leg on her podcast Dudes Do Better. Lisa was working in a strip club at the time, and we wouldn’t be surprised if this was the catalyst for her to make a change. Here’s how the story unfolded, in her words: 

“One of my worst experiences, I used to give these posters away, and for a while I would put them between my legs because I thought it was funny to let the guys take them out with their mouths.” Any normal guy would have made a beeline for her nectar collector, but one client (too much liquor) bit her inner thigh out of nowhere. “A chunk of skin comes out of my leg.” 

She said that she had to go to the hospital immediately and receive a tetanus shot as a result of what happened. But she did take extra precautions, saying that “before I even busted a move, I was in his pocket, taking out his wallet, because I wanted to photocopy his ID to make sure he got an HIV test since he broke skin and teeth are so dirty.”

Smart move, Lisa, very smart move.

Thankfully, once she arrived at the hospital, she was told that she didn’t need stitches or another round of vaccines. “Luckily I did not have to get stitches, but his teeth marks, there were like six chunks out of my skin. He thought that was a good idea.”

10. Jessie Rogers – Badly Beaten With All The Cameras Off

Jessie Rogers posted a tell-all on AntiPornography.org, which was launched by former adult film actress Vanessa Belmond in the wake of her own abuse. Jessica Mendes stopped filming porno scenes just a few months after she turned 19.

She believes that enduring childhood abuse at the hands of her pastor and an older man made her more apt to join the industry, saying, “on a subconscious level I attracted that negativity into my life.” She drew a parallel between her own upbringing and that of most female entertainers. 

While searching for jobs on Craigslist, she saw a modeling gig that paid between $20k and $30k a month. After meeting up with the agent and learning that she’d have to do porn to bring home that much cash, she agreed to start filming XXX-rated scenes the day after her 18th birthday. 

She got into drugs and alcohol as she started hanging out in Los Angeles, and she realized that the glitz and glamor of the San Fernando porn industry was nothing more than a cheap facade to cover up the immense pain and suffering of most working girls. However, that’s not what inspired her to quit. 

The first incident that made her seriously consider leaving the porn industry was, in her words, “a veteran male performer who was in the industry for over 8 years, caught syphilis and faked his test, worked knowing that he had syphilis, and transmitted it to other performers.” Yikes. 

However, that’s not the worst thing that happened to her – she made the mistake of hanging out with a veteran male performer after a scene. She knew he was a sadist at heart, but she never expected him to flip his lid when she woke up, presumably to him on top of her trying to slide in. 

She recounts, “Long story short, he kept beating me, banging my head on his wooden floor, to the point where my face and my head was bleeding. He choked me to the point of passing out twice, and when he would stick my head in his toilet, he would not let me come up for air when I tried. So I thought I was going to die that night.” This horrible beating made Jessie quit for good. 

The Physical Toll of Working In Porn

Pornstar injuries are a dime a dozen, and I hope this list shines a light on what it’s truly like to work in porn.

Sadly, the physical toll is hardly surprising. It’s one of the major reasons why there are so many tragic early deaths in the wider adult industry.

Penile fractures, STD outbreaks, vaginal tears and anal fissures are merely the tip of the iceberg.

We’ve all seen porn that leaves the impression, “Damn, that’s gotta hurt“, and no shit… it absolutely does. The human body is not designed for the type of ‘lovemaking’ that rises to the top of PornHub.

Spare a thought for your favorite adult star next time you load up that hardcore gangbang!