Written by Ben Askren is still on the mend with hopes that he’ll be able to leave the hospital soon but he’s not allowing himself to get mired in pity after requiring a double lung transplant to survive.
The retired UFC veteran was admitted to the hospital several weeks ago after a severe case of pneumonia left him in bad shape. Askren was sedated with doctors constantly monitoring his condition before eventually deciding that he would need two new lungs to breath on his own moving forward.
Askren underwent the surgery and now he’s recovering while also reflecting on the harrowing journey he’s undergone.
“Everything is going pretty well,” Askren said in a video posted to Instagram. “I got another tube out. I only have one tube left. I wanted to make a reflection with where I was less than a month ago, which was Father’s Day.”
He read from an update that a friend wrote about his health with doctors “tinkering” with his sedation during his hospitalization where he showed improvement at times and then the situation seemingly got worse. Whenever Askren was waking up, his oxygen levels were dropping and his blood wasn’t getting oxygenated properly.
It was around then that doctors began evaluating him for the double lung transplant.
“That was like a month ago that they wanted to start transplant evaluation,” Askren said. “I feel like holy crap, I came a long way since then.”
Despite his new situation where Askren’s life has forever changed due to the double lung transplant, he says that he refuses to feel pity for himself just because he got so sick.
Those thoughts crept into his mind at one point but the 40-year-old Olympic wrestler never allowed that to weigh him down.
“I’m going to plead guilty — I felt guilty for myself one time,” Askren explained. “That doesn’t do anybody any good. I thought man, I never smoked one cigarette, never smoked any weed, never did anything. Why did my lungs get stolen from me? Why isn’t this happening to someone who smokes habitually?
“Then I realized, it happened. It’s over. It’s done with. I can be bitter and angry. I could whine, cry. That’s not going to help anybody. I am where I am now and I’m going to move forward the best that I can. So I hope you guys are enjoying the updates. I will not feel sorry for myself. I’m going to get out of here pretty soon and I hope you guys have a great day.”
A lung transplant typically requires a patient to stay in the hospital for an additional two to three weeks during recovery as doctors monitor a person’s condition to ensure there’s no infection or rejection from the new organs. After discharge from the hospital, patients who have a double lung transplant are able to resume normal, everyday activities approximately three to six months later.