Former wrestling, MMA champ Ben Askren details harrowing health scare, double lung transplant

Former MMA and wrestling champion Ben Askren is through a double lung transplant successfully. And on Wednesday he opened up on his battle and his current condition in a video he posted to Instagram.

Askren said he technically died four times during the worst of his ordeal. But he pulled through and he’s doing much better now.

“What’s up guys, have not given you an update in a while, figure you deserve one,” Askren said. “Whenever this is all the way over, I actually just read through my wife’s journal because I don’t remember anything from May 28 to July 2. No recollection, zero idea, no idea what happened. We’ll kind of go through it all. I just read through my wife’s journal, it’s like a movie. It’s ridiculous.

“So I only died four times, right, where the ticker stopped for about 20 seconds. That’s not ideal, you guys know that. But I got the double lung transplant. I made it out the other side of it, gaining quite a bit of strength. Learning to use everything again.”

Ben Askren looks like a shell of his former dominant self, and for good reason. His health scare cost him a huge amount of body weight.

“I was actually on the scale yesterday. 147 pounds. I haven’t been 147 pounds since 15 years old. So I lost like 50 pounds in a 45-day period. So, man, that was a battle. Luckily I don’t remember most of it.”

Ben Askren, who is 40 years old, has been hospitalized for more than a month in his home state of Wisconsin due to severe pneumonia. He received the double lung transplant, hoping to get back on his feet sooner than later.

And the former wrestling champ credited his fans with keeping him going. They’ve provided the inspiration he has needed.

“The thing that was most impactful for me was all the love I felt from everybody,” Ben Askren said. “It was almost like I got to have my own funeral. I still remember three years ago when Dave Schultz died and you listened to all these older people recollect how much they enjoyed him, how much they loved him, and he never got to hear that.

“So man, the outpouring of love from the wrestling community was just amazing. Felt so good. So I’m more motivated than ever to give back and to do what I can and help out the best I can help out. I love you guys, I appreciate you guys. It’s been tough, not only on me, but on my whole family and my close community. So I appreciate everything. Hope you appreciate the update. And like I said, hopefully sometime down the road maybe (my wife) Amy and I can detail everything a little bit more.”