How UFC Star Ben Askren Cheated Death
In a Nutshell
Ben Askren survived a near-fatal staph infection that caused necrotizing pneumonia, leading to 37 days in a coma and a double lung transplant with only a 40% survival rate off ECMO. His athletic discipline enabled a grueling recovery from 138 pounds and near-total muscle loss, and he now maintains strict daily training, breathing work, and medication adherence despite lifelong immunosuppression. He rejects legacy concerns, focuses on consistent improvement, and aims to become the longest-surviving double lung transplant recipient at 39 years.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Ben Askren states he received his lung transplant on June 28th of the previous year. He regained full cognitive awareness around July 2nd. He notes that June 6th of the current year marked his induction into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, exactly one year after being airlifted from Las Vegas while critically ill.
On June 6th of the previous year, Askren was in Las Vegas when his condition deteriorated rapidly. After visits to two local hospitals, friends who were a doctor and a nurse determined he would not survive transport to a third facility. They arranged an airlift back to Milwaukee specifically for its strong CVICU (cardiovascular intensive care unit). During transport his body had to be fully paralyzed. Upon arrival he was placed on ECMO, a procedure with only a 40% survival rate off the machine. He has no personal memory of these events.
Askren's symptoms began on May 27th with severe back pain initially diagnosed as a back spasm. Vitals and tests the previous day had been normal. Pain medication failed to help. His wife recorded him sleeping and sent the footage to physician friends, who immediately urged hospitalization. While asleep he exhibited extremely rapid and labored breathing.
Askren reluctantly returned to the same Las Vegas hospital. He remembers walking into the waiting room and nothing after that point. He remained unconscious for approximately 37 days, waking on July 2nd in a different hospital in Milwaukee. Upon waking he could not speak and learned he had undergone a double lung transplant. His wife had maintained a detailed day-by-day journal that he later read to understand the sequence of events.
The root cause was a staph infection on his elbow that initially appeared minor and cleared with basic hygiene. Four days later back pain began. The infection entered his bloodstream and developed into necrotizing pneumonia, causing his body to essentially consume his lung tissue from the inside. He had no flu-like symptoms, cough, or other typical warning signs. The back pain was the only indicator.
Initial treatment focused on saving the lungs and managing sepsis. When lung function could not be preserved, a double lung transplant became the only option for survival. He spent roughly three weeks in the Milwaukee hospital prior to transplant surgery. He remained unconscious for approximately six additional days after the procedure.
Both lungs came from a single donor. Askren wrote to the donor family but received no response. He notes that mixed-donor double lung transplants are possible, citing a hospital acquaintance who received lungs from two different donors after one initial lung rejected. He declined to research the exact surgical technique, known as the "clamshell incision," because he finds the details disturbing. The surgeon later described his case as one of the most difficult transplants performed due to extensive tissue death and lung tissue adhering to the chest cavity walls, requiring extensive scraping.
Askren believes the initial staph infection came from a minor elbow cut but has not aggressively investigated the precise pathway with doctors. His wife had informed medical staff about the elbow infection, yet physicians struggled to explain how such rapid systemic deterioration occurred in an otherwise healthy, non-smoking individual with no prior respiratory issues. He has focused research efforts on recovery protocols rather than etiology.
The first 10–14 days after regaining consciousness were marked by significant delirium from medications and sleep deprivation. He experienced vivid hallucinations, including believing he was in a nonexistent hospital near his home and repeatedly threatening to walk home despite being unable to walk. Some memories were later verified as real through conversations with visitors; others were fabricated.
Askren lost approximately 60 pounds of mostly muscle mass during hospitalization. Recovery progressed slowly. He was the first lung transplant patient discharged with a chest tube still in place. He developed a subsequent infection requiring two additional weeks of hospitalization. Independent walking began around the two-month mark, initially limited to short distances with support. Recovery followed incremental goals: progressing from 8-minute walks to 10, then 12 minutes, and gradually adding strength exercises such as squats. At 11 months post-transplant he continues to experience measurable improvement.
The dominant emotion upon waking and becoming lucid was astonishment at having received a lung transplant despite never smoking or engaging in obvious risk factors. Secondary focus shifted immediately to actionable recovery steps. He describes heavy use of ChatGPT for medical research, cross-referencing approximately 70–80% accurate outputs with his physicians.
While unconscious, Askren's wife coordinated extensive family and friend support. Grandparents alternated hospital visits while friends and relatives assisted with childcare during summer break to maintain normalcy for the children. Community members provided meals and other practical help.
Askren credits his entire athletic career—wrestling, MMA, and boxing—for the resilience required during recovery. He emphasizes that even on days with poor breathing or low energy, consistent effort is mandatory for progress, drawing directly on the discipline developed through years of training.
Ben maintains a strict daily regimen regardless of how he feels. Even on days when he does not feel good, he may not complete everything planned but will still do something. He schedules workouts around how he feels, such as moving a 10 a.m. session to 2 p.m., but commits to completing his workout, training, breathing exercises, and other medical requirements every day without missing them. This discipline originated from his athletic background and has transferred directly to his recovery.
Ben's lowest weight reached 138 pounds, described as skin and bones. He previously fought at 170 pounds, walked around at approximately 185 pounds during his fighting career, and reached about 195 pounds after retirement. This represented roughly a 50% weight reduction. His wife has photographs documenting his emaciated state.
Several factors contributed to the extreme weight loss. Lack of movement played a major role, as Ben was at times paralyzed and other times physically restrained when agitation would spike his heart rate and cause his oxygenation to drop. Additionally, prednisone, which he expects to take for life, has muscle-wasting effects as part of its immunosuppressive action.
Following his lung transplant, Ben requires lifelong immunosuppression to prevent his body from attacking the transplanted organs, which it would recognize as foreign. This leaves him vulnerable to illness, making crowded areas and uncontrolled environments risky. He wears a mask frequently in public despite previously criticizing mask usage. Medication levels, including prednisone and tacrolimus, are gradually reduced as time passes and health improves. Lower doses have increased his energy and discretion in recent weeks, with further reductions anticipated around his one-year anniversary.
Ben states that if he had died upon entering the hospital, he would have considered his life successful. He had done work he loved through coaching wrestling and running wrestling academies, which he views as meaningful for helping young people improve both at wrestling and in life. He loved his wife and had a great family. He did not need death to reveal misguided priorities, as he believes his priorities were already sound. However, he reports becoming more patient and experiencing greater gratitude. He also became a Christian, moving from being Christian-adjacent after attending church for 16 years to a deeper commitment.
Ben divested from business investments that consumed his time without genuine passion, even when meetings were infrequent. He now evaluates opportunities by asking whether they are something he truly wants to do 100% with his life and whether they justify time away from his children and family. If the answer is no, he declines. He referenced the concept from Peaky Blinders that everything after nearly dying is extra, and he wants to maximize this additional time.
The median life expectancy after a double lung transplant is six and a half years, though Ben believes this statistic may not fully apply to him given his background as a professional athlete who did not develop lung disease through smoking or poor health. The longest recorded survival after a double lung transplant is 38 years, which Ben has set as a goal of at least 39 years.
Ben's top priority is coaching athletes at his wrestling academies, of which there are now nine in Wisconsin. He plans to reduce weekend travel for tournaments to spend more time at home, particularly as his daughter, now 13, has developed an interest in wrestling. He will no longer engage in activities he does not genuinely love or feel passionate about.
Ben's definition of success has been influenced by his upcoming wrestling match next month. He works with Real American Freestyle (RAF), which is performing well, and one of his life goals is to help establish a legitimate professional wrestling organization in America. Messages from people inspired by his journey motivate him. He believes his consistency in message and action, demonstrated through surviving near-death and climbing back, resonates differently than success alone.
Ben has met RFK Jr. and acknowledges some unconventional beliefs but credits him with correcting the food pyramid orientation for the first time in American history. He admires RFK Jr.'s courage and fearlessness, noting that despite witnessing his father and uncle's assassinations, RFK Jr. still places himself in the line of fire. Ben references the myth of Sisyphus, emphasizing the value of showing up daily with a good attitude and working hard even without guaranteed rewards.
Ben argues wrestling has greater impact on a child's life than other activities because it serves as a microcosm of life. Participants experience hardship, sacrifice, and the absence of constant success. Wrestling enforces humility because athletes are never the best in every room and must continually seek new challenges. It teaches hard work, discipline, perseverance through inevitable setbacks, self-reliance since no teammates can intervene, and humility through direct physical consequences.
Ben notes that parental expectations differ significantly between wrestling academies and MMA gyms. Wrestling parents typically seek discipline, hard work, and toughness, with possible outcomes like state titles or college scholarships. MMA parents often envision their child becoming a television star and earning substantial money. This difference in expectations contributes to the distinct mental profiles observed across sports.
Ben considers MMA a poor career choice unless the individual genuinely loves fighting and combat. He outlines a realistic timeline: one year of training before an amateur fight, two years of amateur competition, two to three years of low-level professional fights, and potentially seven years total before reaching the UFC. Even with perfect success in the first UFC year, net earnings after gym fees, manager cuts, and taxes would be approximately $35,000 to $40,000 outside California, or around $27,000 in California. He has recommended the path to only two individuals who demonstrated an unusually strong desire to fight.
Ben maintains that talent does not exist. He defines talent as the ability to perform complex tasks at a high level, which he argues cannot occur without extensive training. He points out that apparent early differences between children often stem from prior environment, activity levels, nutrition, and lifestyle rather than innate ability. He references sled dog breeding for the Iditarod, where dogs are selected for desire to keep running rather than speed or strength alone. For complex skills like wrestling, success requires multiple attributes including work ethic, perseverance, desire, intellect, and coordination.
Ben Askren describes himself as having incredibly slow twitch muscle fiber, with his fastest 40-yard dash being 5.8 seconds. Despite this, he found ways to succeed. He notes that wrestlers with explosive and fast attributes also succeed by finding ways to make their physical profile work. Success requires roughly 20 out of 25 key attributes, and athletes can pick and choose which ones to develop rather than needing every single trait.
Askren acknowledges that people are predisposed by genetics but emphasizes that the early period in life is often neglected in discussions of talent. He shares the story of Laszlo Polgar, who claimed talent does not exist and set out to prove it. Polgar placed an ad seeking a wife who would help him raise chess champion children. His three daughters became three of the five highest-rated chess players of all time.
The conversation includes a sponsorship segment for Athletic Brewing Co., highlighting their non-alcoholic beers. The brand offers a variety pack of four flavors that can be shipped directly, with 15% off the first online order using code "modernwisdom" at athleticbrewing.com/modernwisdom.
Askren went undefeated for 87 matches during his final two years of college wrestling. When asked about the mental pressure of maintaining such a streak, he states he simply did not think about it. Focusing on the possibility of losing would have caused him to lose.
During his junior and senior years, Askren worked with a sports psychology PhD and sent questionnaires to every Division I NCAA champion from 1956 to 2006. One key question asked when each champion went from "good to great." The most consistently answered question revealed that many champions rejected the premise entirely, stating they never reached greatness.
Division I NCAA wrestling champions represent roughly one in 100,000 wrestlers in America. Despite this elite status, a large percentage responded that they were never great. Askren realized the power lies in focusing solely on getting better and beating the next opponent as badly as possible rather than thinking about personal greatness or legacy.
Askren notes that legacy is determined by what other people think, not by the individual. He focuses daily on what he needs to do to improve and what is best for his life, ignoring external opinions about his legacy.
Askren references his former coach Duke, who frequently said, "If you're green, you're growing." This means maintaining a white belt mentality—remaining open to knowledge and learning—ensures continued improvement. Once someone believes they know everything or are good enough, decline begins.
At Askren Wrestling Academy, which has been open for 15 years, certain kids would declare they wanted a sectional or state title and believed they no longer needed coaching because they were "really good." Askren notes that state titles and state championships are not in the same category, and believing one has made it leads to plateaus or skill decline.
The discussion explores the difference between someone who never achieved success versus someone who achieved it and then declined. Society often disparages those who "had it and lost it" more than those who never reached high levels, despite the latter having objectively achieved less. Askren advises ignoring external opinions entirely.
Askren retired in 2017, unretired in 2018 to fight higher-ranked opponents, then retired again. He argues there is nothing wrong with athletes like Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady continuing to compete at older ages. If they remain elite enough to be among the top 32 quarterbacks in the NFL, they should continue if they wish.
Many casual fans remember Askren primarily for his five-second knockout loss. He states he ignored reputation concerns from the beginning and continues to do so. He never entered MMA to care about what people thought of him; he entered to see if he could become the best in the world.
During his Bellator championship run, Askren fought highly ranked fighters including Jay Hieron and Douglas Lima but never faced anyone in the top five. He retired, then unretired specifically to fight someone ranked higher than him, such as Robbie Lawler, in an attempt to prove he was number one.
Askren had multiple opportunities for his life to be defined by specific achievements: NCAA champion status, 87 undefeated matches, being sixth best in the world, the fast knockout, boxing Jake Paul, or overcoming death with a double lung transplant. At each juncture, the world offered to reduce his identity to one thing, but he rejected this framing.
Askren states that legacy is defined by others if they choose to define it. He lives life the way he wants and as fully as possible. He hopes people are inspired by his willingness to take every opportunity offered without needing anything given to him—only opportunities. He accepts he will not win every time.
Askren references Josh Medeiros' book Childhood Carry Water and his later book Finish Empty, written from a deathbed perspective. The latter was released around the time of Askren's near-death experience.
A memorable quote from Finish Empty states: "The point of life is not to arrive safely at death." Askren connects this to his philosophy of stopping worry and taking action. Another quote compares worrying to a rocking chair: "You can move all day, but you ain't going anywhere."
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Askren's goal is to become the longest-living double lung transplant patient ever. The current record is 38 years; he aims for 39 years, which would make him 80 years old. He plans to take his medicine daily, wear a mask when necessary, and avoid recklessness with his health.
Askren notes that organs are already being built using patients' own stem cells. This technology could eventually eliminate the need for immunosuppressants, which currently limit life expectancy by weakening the immune system and causing secondary problems.
Askren told his doctor he is willing to volunteer for any experimental protocols that could extend his life. He specifically volunteered to test stem cell-grown lungs, stating he would undergo another lung transplant.
A movie about Askren's experience is scheduled for release in the fall. His wife filmed extensively during his hospital stay. A family friend who is a movie producer shopped the footage, and Novo Studios (the Henrys) picked it up. The film aims to inspire people to live fearlessly, take chances, and live life fully without worrying about others' opinions.
Askren does not post frequently on social media. His real name accounts exist on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). He encourages people to watch the upcoming documentary for further inspiration.
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