Don Frye out of a coma, vows to get back on track

UFC Hall of Famer Don Frye appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour and described his medical state, which has been perilous. He spent 10 weeks in the hospital, much of it in a medically-induced coma. Frye currently needs a walker to get around.

‘The Predator’ has endured a grim year.

He divorced earlier in the year, taking him away from his two daughters. In 2013 he had a number of vertebrae fused. For the past few years he suffered from pain but, “didn’t want to b**** about it.”

An x-ray eventually revealed the source of the pain – a rod from a prior surgery had broken.

“I went in there for my back,” said Frye, as transcribed by Dave Meltzer for MMA Fighting. “I broke the rod in my back, and then I had some kind of hemorrhage in my brain. And then they put me in a medically-induced coma for a while, and then I had pneumonia, and something else I can’t remember.”

“They saw in the X-ray that I had broken the rod. I had broken the rod a year or two earlier, and then I had a bacterial infection and I had a really high fever. I was always sweating and I didn’t know why. I had a fever due to the infection that was in my spine.”

“It’s all stuff they’re telling me after they woke me up.”

“I’ve been awake for ten days. Before that, I was out for two months so I don’t know what’s going on. It’s like a whole new world for me. It was terrible.”

The bright moment of the year came when he was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.

“I was shocked,” he said. “And I’m still shocked. I was watching the fights and then they announced me and Ant Evans called and started laughing. And then Bill Goldberg called and congratulated me and then my phone just blew up.”

“It was great. It was f***ing great. It saved my life. It was something that happened at the right time.”

“I’ll get back on track. I’m Don Frye.”

Helwani asked Frye how he sustained the initial injuries, inquiring whether it was from wrestling or MMA.

“Probably a combination,” replied Frye.

And what broke the rod?

“Not a clue buddy,” said Frye. “Not a clue.”

Spending weeks of months in a coma must run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Frye had insurance this year through the Screen Actor’s Guild, but there is a minimum acting income requirement, and it will run out soon.