Retired UFC veteran Ben Askren stays hospitalized with extreme pneumonia and now he’s awaiting a lung transplant as his subsequent course of therapy.
The newest replace comes from Askren’s spouse Amy, who revealed that he’s on the transplant listing awaiting a potential donor. She added that Askren has been awake at occasions and he has tried to speak whereas he continues to obtain assist along with his respiratory.
“As of late final evening, Ben is formally on the transplant listing,” Amy Askren wrote on Fb. “Please pray he can get stronger and keep steady with out problems whereas he waits, and that they discover a tremendous match for him and he accepts it easily. Additionally please pray for whoever that donor could also be, and his household. It’s going to be an enormous adjustment for Ben, however our household is so grateful that his different organs are okay and that there’s a path ahead.
“Whereas he’s having extra intervals of consciousness, he’s not in a position to have a look at his cellphone but and reply to messages. I hope he can get there within the subsequent week or two! Additionally hoping we’ll get to a spot quickly the place he can speak whereas on a trach. Yesterday he saved mouthing one thing for some time and we lastly found out he was saying espresso! (He can’t have it but lol) What an enormous reduction to see him asking for one thing so regular. I’m so grateful his thoughts is wholesome and I can’t wait to have him again. We’re additionally so grateful for the superb neighborhood we have-from shut mates, mates we haven’t talked to in 20 plus years, to strangers who’ve reached out to share their comparable tales or pray. Thanks.”
Askren was hospitalized a number of weeks in the past after he was recognized with a extreme case of pneumonia that required him to be positioned on a ventilator in addition to an ECMO machine — Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation — which is a life assist device utilized by medical doctors when a affected person’s coronary heart or lungs is unable to function adequately.
Askren’s spouse has continued to offer updates whereas he stays hospitalized and unable to talk. She beforehand revealed that it was potential he may need a lung transplant for his finest likelihood at restoration.
The 40-year-old veteran has acquired an outpouring of assist from the MMA and wrestling neighborhood after he was a stalwart in each sports activities for a few years. He retired from the UFC in 2019 and finally returned for a boxing match towards Jake Paul.
Recently, Askren’s primary occupation has been teaching wrestling at his academies in Wisconsin after he represented the USA within the 2008 Olympics after he was a two-time Nationwide Champion for the College of Missouri.
