Podbit · Modern Wisdom
Ben Askren walked into a hospital thinking he had a back spasm and woke up 37 days later with someone else's lungs. A staph infection on his elbow had entered his bloodstream, triggered necrotising pneumonia, and caused his body to eat his lungs from the inside out.
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At 1:42 · chapter starts 0:00
Ben Askren was at the Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas when his back began hurting. He went to the hospital on May 27th, was told it was a back spasm, collected his prescription, and returned to the hotel irritated. When the medicine failed — something that had never happened with previous back spasms — his wife began videotaping him sleeping and sent it to doctor friends, who immediately told her to get him back to hospital. Ben protested; his wife won. He walked into the emergency room waiting area and that is the last thing he remembers. What he did not know: a staph infection that had cleared from his elbow weeks earlier had entered his bloodstream and triggered necrotising pneumonia — a condition in which his body was literally eating his lungs from the inside out. By the time doctors understood what they were dealing with, the only way to keep him alive was a double lung transplant. He was unconscious for approximately 37 days and in hospital for about 73 in total. When he finally came to, in the dark, alone, unable to speak, a nurse told him he had had a double lung transplant. He had absolutely no idea how that could have happened. [1] — Ben Askren "Ben Askren walked into a hospital thinking he had a back spasm and woke up 37 days later with someone else's lungs. A staph infection on hi…" 01:42
When Ben was flown back to Milwaukee on June 6th last year, doctors had to fully paralyse him for transport. On arrival, they put him on ECMO — a machine that only about 40% of patients come off alive. Ben made it. Most don't.
Patients placed on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) have only about a 40% chance of surviving to come off the machine.
Ben Askren was unconscious for approximately 37 days after being admitted to hospital with what he thought was a back spasm.
Ben Askren woke up in the dark, alone, unable to speak, having no idea why he was in a hospital. A nurse told him he'd had a double lung transplant. His wife arrived in the morning with a day-by-day journal of everything that had happened while he was unconscious.
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