59 days after he was hospitalized due to a life-threatening battle with pneumonia, leading to a double-lung transplant, Ben Askren has now been released to continue his recovery at home.
“Day 59, I’m out!” Askren said in a new video taken while being driven home by his wife Amy. “With my beautiful wife supportive. That was a long journey and it’s not over because I still can’t really walk. I have to re-teach myself to do that among many other things.
“I guess I can make light of it because it was me and I don’t really remember it.
“‘How close was I to dying?'” Askren then asked his wife.
“Too close,” Amy replied. “A few times.
“I don’t remember 35 days of this journey,” Askren continued. “I think surgery was 24, or 25 days ago. It was. hard.
“I’ve said this already in one of the videos but the support you guys gave me, whether it was setting up a GoFundMe, whether it was helping my kids and wife get through it, I had friends come from all over the country just to hang out for a couple of days. It meant so much. It was so great to have all the support and all the love.
“Hopefully I’m not in this situation again for a really, really, really long time. I plan on living a while. So thank you guys again.”
