Brock: At best I would have had to wear a colostomy bag
Paul Heyman: “Brock Lesnar Is Not Going To Shut Up About Health Care!” You can’t undo a major surgery. Brock…
Paul Heyman: “Brock Lesnar Is Not Going To Shut Up About Health Care!”
You can’t undo a major surgery.
Brock Lesnar called yesterday. He’s pissed. The Ultimate Fighting Heavyweight Champion of the World is being told he should talk fighting, not health care. “I’m not going to shut up about this,” Brock stated, rather emphatically during our conversation, “I’m an American. I’m guaranteed the right to express my opinion. And I’m stating it loud and clear, because I experienced something that I want to talk about. If I was a recovering drug addict, people would want to hear my story. Well, I survived something, and I went through –first hand– the problems in the health care system, and I want to talk about it.”
Although the media has reported the story about Brock’s decision to bolt out of the Canadian hospital in Manitoba and have his wife Rena drive at 100 MPH to get across the United States border, no one has explained just how close the current UFC Heavyweight Champion of the World was to being forced into retirement. No goodbye match. No farewell tour. Nothing. Just retirement. Boom, your career is over. Thank you, we appreciate all your hard work, hope you enjoy the royalty checks from the video game you’re in. By the way, can you please return the title belt? And that’s just the business/financial end of it. The personal toll would be enormous, too.
You can’t undo a major surgery. If the doctors in Canada had decided to amputate one of Brock’s arms or legs, the damage they would be doing to his career would be the same as the surgery they wanted to perform. “I entered the hospital around 4am on a Saturday morning,” Brock recalls, “and I spent two nights there. No one talks about that. Their CT machine was broken, and they were waiting for a replacement. They could not take a picture of my stomach. If they would have had the ability to take the picture, they would have seen I had holes inside me. If I stayed at that Canadian hospital, at best I would have been retired and would have to wear a colostomy bag. At worst, I could have died.”
Brock’s not being over-dramatic. “They didn’t have any state-of-the-art equipment, and I was in their facility,” he exclaimed, “So first thing that Monday morning, when the doctors came in, and they still didn’t have a way to take a picture of my stomach …still didn’t have a way to operate that CT machine … my wife and I knew we had to get out of there.”
Brock’s wife drove him to The Med One Center in Bismarck, where Brock was under the care of Dr. Bruderer. “Paul, this is very important to me. That man definitely saved my career, and maybe even my life,” Brock said, “they took the CT picture, got a proper diagnosis … and came back with a plan based on the information they now had thanks to the state-of-the-art equipment.”
Brock doesn’t paint the picture of his Canadian experience as a bunch of rusty saws and roach-infested near-prison-cells, but his experience has left him concerned with the state of health care in the Great White North, and how that is a glimpse into the future of what Brock perceives to be the American Health Care Upheaval.
“I’ve paid plenty of taxes in Canada,” Brock said, “So I have a right to talk about this. This is what happens with socialized medical care. I’ve paid into the system, and the system did not take care of me. It almost put me out for good. I think people should know about this. Hey, I love Canada. I’ve said that. I wasn’t backing away from any controversy or being diplomatic when I said it. I love the hunting … I love the people … but what I experienced almost ended my career because the doctors were working under conditions where they were waiting on a machine part. At the Med One Center in Bismarck, I was diagnosed, and put on an I.V. for 11 days. I didn’t eat for 11 days. They fed me intra-veinously.”
Brock had a small procedure done, but the doctors wanted to perform a much bigger surgery, which would place the likelihood of Brock ever entering the Octagon again at slim. “I love fighting,” Brock said with great passion today, “I didn’t want to give it up.”
So Brock went home, where he changed his entire lifestyle. A trip to the Lesnar Family Compound is a carnivore’s dream. Brock has freezers (yes, plural) filled with meat from the animals he (and/or his wife) have shot with a hunting rifle or a bow and arrow. But the days of meat-and-potatoes farm boy wolfing down his XX-portions are over.
With the help, love, and support of his wife, Brock’s diet changed dramatically. Since coming home from the hospital, he has incorporated fiber and natural medicines into his diet, coupled with the aggressive anti-biotic program the doctors prescribed for him. He’s put back on 32 pounds, and has gotten back into the swing of things during his workouts.
Yes, he’s working out. And yes, to anyone but Brock Lesnar, the workouts are awe-inspiring. To Brock, he’s “slowly working” his way “back to normal workouts.”
I saw some of his scaled-back workouts. The drive and determination of this monstrous athlete can’t be overstated. To Brock, though, it’s not just a matter of fighting his way back to defending his championship.
“This (health care) issue isn’t going away,” Brock declared, “and I’m not, either. I’m not some dumb meathead fighter. I have something to say. I still have my career today because of the United States Health Care System. Does it need some fixing? Absolutely. But the changes I’m hearing about don’t sit well with me, and I’m exercising my rights by speaking my mind.”
“And no one,” the Ultimate Fighting Champion, perhaps the single baddest man on the entire planet said, “is going to stop me.”