Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What led to Ben Askren's double lung transplant?
Welcome back to life, dude. Well, I've been living again for quite a while now. June 28th was actually the day I got the transplant last year, so coming up on a year for that. I believe I woke up on July 2nd or somewhere around there, or came to in my own mind. So yeah, it's their process, but I'm here, I'm getting better, and life's pretty good.
Chapter 2: What happened after Ben blacked out during his health crisis?
So one year ago from now, you were really in the shit.
Well, I just made a post yesterday because on June 6th, which was two days ago, Saturday, I got inducted to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. And when I went home, I went back to the hotel with my wife.
Chapter 3: How does one survive without functioning lungs?
I said, did I get airlifted June 6th last year? So last year on June 6th,
Chapter 4: What is necrotizing pneumonia and how did it affect Ben?
I was in Vegas and I went to the first hospital, second hospital. And then we had some friends that came out that were, one was a doctor and one was a nurse.
Chapter 5: What was the journey of recovery like for Ben after his transplant?
And I said, he's not going to make it to this hospital. We need to get him back to Milwaukee because they have a good, it's called CVICU, cardiovascular intensive care unit. And they got me a flight. They put me on a plane, took me all the way back. And I said to my wife, well, why was that such a bad day? Because I don't remember, I was sleeping.
And she said, to transport me, they had to fully paralyze my body. And then when I got back to Milwaukee, they put me on ECMO. And with ECMO, I think there's only a 40% chance you come off ECMO. A lot of people go on it, don't come off it. So they were hoping I wouldn't have to do that. I did have to do that. So June 6th last year, although I don't remember it, it was quite eventful.
And then this year you got to celebrate.
Chapter 6: How did surviving near-death change Ben's outlook on life?
So it's, you know, it's full circle. For the people who don't know what we're talking about, could you explain what's happened over the last 12 months?
Yeah. Well, May 28th last year, 2025, I went to the hospital. I actually went down on the day before also. May 27th, my back was hurting. Just a back pain.
Chapter 7: Has Ben's definition of success evolved after his experiences?
I thought it was a back spasm. That was it. And on May 27th, I tested. Everything was normal. I did all the vitals. And I told my wife, see, I told you I was just a back spasm. And the doctor gave me medicine for a back spasm. And I went back to the hotel. We were at the Bitcoin conference. And it got worse. And the medicine did not work at all, which has never happened.
I've had a handful of other back spasms in my life. And the medicine is really good. And It just got worse and worse and worse. And then I was up most of the night trying to make it feel better. And when I woke up in the morning, so sometime in the middle of the night, I'd finally fallen asleep. When I woke up in the morning, it was a little bit later, and she had been videotaping me sleeping.
And she had sent it to a few of her doctor friends, and they said, you need to get him to the hospital as soon as you can. So when I woke up... What was happening while you were sleeping? I was super fast and hard breathing. And so when I woke up, my mom was like, Hey, we're, we're going to the hospital. And I said, dude, you made me go to the hospital.
Chapter 8: What lessons about life and resilience can be learned from Ben's story?
I said, I'll not go back to the hospital. Damn it. Um, you know, I got stuff I want to do today. I don't want to go to the hospital. And she's like, no, you gotta go to the hospital. So eventually they convinced me to go to the hospital. And it was the same place as the day before we went there. And I remember walking in, in the waiting room. And then, That's it. I don't remember anything.
I woke up July 2nd. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know why I was there. I don't remember anything. I was asleep for, I want to say, I think it was 37 days, I believe.
So you transported from kind of being a bit irritated that you were back at the same hospital for what you thought might be a back spasm for the second time and your wife being a little bit overbearing. Yes. to now it's July and what the fuck am I oh and I'm in a totally different I'm in a totally different hospital now
Well, I woke up and it was, you know, I say wake up. I was awake sometimes, but to my recollection, I don't recall any of it, nothing. And so when I wake up the first time or when I come to some type of cognitive understanding of what's going on, it was the middle of the night. It was dark. I obviously quickly realized I was in a hospital. And I started thinking, like, how did I end up here?
Why am I here? I didn't remember going in Vegas. it was how am I here and why am I here? And then I couldn't speak at all. And so I, I don't even recall how it happened, but for some way I, you know, signal to the nurse, like, why am I here? What am I doing?
And they told me I had a double lung transplant and you know, again, I couldn't talk and it was like, okay, why do I have a double lung transplant? I have, I don't know. I have no idea what, how that would happen. I'm totally healthy. I've never smoked. I've never done anything. Um, And then eventually my wife came in the morning, whatever that, you know, the next morning or whatever.
And she had documented everything. So it was like a day by day journal of, you know, June 2nd, this happened, June 4th, this happened. And I had to read through it. And I was like, oh my God, What? Like, how did this ever happen? And yes, that was kind of my recollection of waking up and kind of figuring out what was going on.
So retrospectively, I know that you weren't awake to be able to work out this from a first person view. You go into the waiting room and then what happens from there?
Um, well, so I had a staph infection on my elbow. Um, I don't know if you've ever got one or not, but you know, sometimes like I, in all my life, I've only had to get on an, uh, antibiotic a singular time. Um, you know, you get a cut, you get a little infected, you put some antibacterial on there, you wash, you shower, you clean it up and it goes away. And that was what happened to me. I could,
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