AI Summary
5 min readOn June 6th, 2024, former UFC champion Ben Askren was in a Las Vegas hospital, fully paralyzed and on a plane back to Milwaukee. Doctors had told his family he would not make it. A year later, sitting in a studio, Askren describes waking up from a 37-day coma to discover he had received a double lung transplant—an event he had no memory of and no medical reason to expect. "Whoever could guess, 'Oh yeah, my back hurts because my body's eating my lungs from the inside,'" he says. "No one's ever heard of that."
The Infection That Ate His Lungs
The chain of events began innocuously. Askren developed a small staph infection on his elbow after a shower. It cleared up quickly with antibiotics. About four days later, his back began to hurt. He assumed it was a back spasm—a common complaint for a former wrestler and fighter. He went to a hospital, was given muscle relaxants, and sent back to his hotel. The pain only got worse. By the next morning, his wife had been videotaping him sleeping; his breathing was "super fast and hard." Doctor friends told her to get him to the hospital immediately.
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of Modern Wisdom
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (00:28) **Crisis timeline** - June 2024 sequence from Bitcoin Conference to multiple hospitals and near-death
- 2 (01:42) **Initial symptoms** - May 27 back pain dismissed as spasm after normal vitals and medication
- 3 (02:41) **Hospital admission** - May 28 morning decision to return to ER after doctor friends urged immediate care
- 4 (03:43) **37-day coma and transplant** - Woke July 2 with no memory; learned he had received a double lung transplant
- 5 (05:02) **Cause identified** - Minor elbow staph infection four days earlier seeded necrotizing pneumonia
- 6 (06:20) **Medical escalation** - Sepsis and lung destruction led to transplant as only survival option
- 7 (07:03) **Transplant surgery details** - Double lungs from single donor; "clamshell" incision required
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Ben Askren is a former Olympic wrestler and former MMA champion.
What is it like to come face-to-face with death and make it back? Ben went from being on top of the world to needing a double lung transplant just to survive. What actually happened to him, what did he endure during his recovery, and how did the experience reshape his perspective on life?
Expect to learn what actually happened to Ben these past 18 months, how low his health went, the biggest lessons Ben has held onto over the last year, what Ben thought about when he was that close to death, how surviving and recovering changed his thoughts on faith and fatherhood, and much more…
Sponsors:
See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals
Timestamps:
(0:00) The Crazy Story Behind Ben’s Double Lung Transplant (5:01) What Happened After Ben Blacked Out? (8:27) How Do You Breathe Without Lungs? (10:38) The Hidden Danger of Necrotising Pneumonia (12:27) The Long Road Back to Health (17:30) Waking Up to a Second Chance at Life (21:35) How to Stay Strong Through Illness (26:40) How Near-Death Changed Ben’s Priorities (33:29) Has Ben’s Definition of Success Changed? (37:26) Why Wrestlers Are Mentally Different (41:44) Talent vs Hard Work: What Brings You Success? (48:24) How to Stop the Pressure Getting to You (57:38) Choose Your Own Legacy (01:04:01) Where to Find Ben
Extra Stuff:
Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books
Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom
Episodes You Might Enjoy:
#577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins
#712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson
#700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: lnkfi.re/SN-Huberman
-
Get In Touch:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast
Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact
-
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from this podcast
Modern Wisdom →