Markwayne Mullin Gets Emotional Telling Story Of His Son Getting A Traumatic Brain Injury

4 months ago

At a Senate Health Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) spoke about his son's traumatic brain injury.

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Transcript

00:00Senator Mullen. And I'll try to be as brief as I can, but it's going to be a

00:05little longer. This is a personal story about my son. I'm very involved in

00:10traumatic brain injuries because of my son, Jim Mullen, who now wrestles at

00:13Oklahoma State at the age of 20. But at the age of 15, he had a dramatic brain

00:19injury, which led him to not even be able to walk, not be able to touch his nose, not

00:25be able to to read, write. And at the time, he was a high school and freshman,

00:30nationally ranked, had wrestled all over the world for the junior world team. And

00:35we knew something was wrong with Jim, and we had taken him every place. He'd been

00:40wrestling since he was a little kid and was absolutely amazing at the sport. And

00:46but something just wasn't right, and we didn't know what it was. We've sent him

00:50to several concussion specialists. We ended up getting referred to the

00:55Cleveland Clinic. He spent, and this is no backhand to the Cleveland Clinic, but

00:58the truth is, if you speak to 12 neurologists, you'll get 12 different

01:02opinions. And we went to the Cleveland Clinic, spent two weeks at the

01:06Cleveland Clinic, and at the end of it, their conclusion was is that it was in

01:10his head. Not in his head like in his head, but mentally, they said, this is

01:14what the neurologist showed us, that this is his way of telling us he doesn't want

01:18to wrestle anymore. We never pushed Jim at wrestling. Jim loved wrestling from

01:21the day he first stepped on the mat at six years old, and he never stopped it.

01:25He was the kid that was always looking for practice, wanting to go to practice,

01:28walked out of practice, and all the other kids would be crying, and you'd ask Jim

01:31how he was doing. He'd say, oh, Dad, I loved it. And so we knew it wasn't right,

01:35but we said, well, okay, if it's nothing with neurology saying nothing's wrong

01:41with him, then we're going to go ahead and let him wrestle. Well, literally three

01:44months later, he's wrestling at Newton, Kansas. He gets hit in the head.

01:48I'm coaching, and he walks over to me, and he says, Dad, I don't feel good. He

02:01looked at me and collapsed. Coated, had severe oxygen depletion. We, of course,

02:09rushed him to the Wesleyan Medical Center at Wichita, Kansas, and he's in

02:16the pediatric ICU there, and he woke up 26 hours later. He didn't know who he

02:22was, didn't know his name, didn't know who we were, knew we were somebody, but

02:27didn't know who we belonged to, didn't know what year it was. The only question

02:31he got right, and this is no political joke here, was who the president was. He

02:34said Trump, and, of course, President Trump found that hilarious, and then he

02:41started testing him, and they had him just do simple touches, and the issue

02:49was is that he couldn't touch his nose, and then they got him up to walk, and

02:53here's an elite athlete, and he was shuffling his feet and had to put a

02:56safety belt on him, and the neurologists at the Wesleyan Medical Center told us

03:00we'll go home, and it'll eventually wear off. That's what we were told

03:05by the lead neurologist there. Fortunately, we got hold of the Center

03:11for Neural Skills in Bakersfield, California, and the founder of the place

03:15called Mark Ashley gave us a call while we were in the hospital, and he started

03:20asking for his medical records, and we started giving him all the medical

03:22records, and he said, he said, has this happened, this happened, how long has

03:26this been going on? He started hitting all the points, and the first time as a

03:29parent, it was like we got somebody that actually got answers here. Well, what

03:32ended up happening was an 18-month journey for us being at the Center for

03:36Neural Skills and him learning every skill again. It's so hard to see your son

03:42that can't even put together a kindergarten puzzle, and before this

03:47happened, he was taking, he was taking advanced classes in school and not

03:54being able to hold a plank or be able to bring his feet up, and we couldn't, I

03:59mean, literally doctor after doctor couldn't give us answers. They told us

04:03it was going to be three years of intense rehabilitation, and Jim's

04:10attitude was, he said, dad, I learned it once, I can learn it again. So he had a

04:14good attitude by it, right? I still have problems with it. I don't think I've ever

04:19quit crying over it. One of the hardest things that I've dealt with as a parent

04:22to see your kid go through this, they said he could never wrestle again, said

04:25he would never be able to play sports again. Of course, he's defeated odds, like

04:29I said, he's wrestling at the University of, or the Oklahoma State

04:32University right now. But my point of all this, the reason why this is so

04:36personal, and Chairman, I appreciate you indulging me in so much extra time, is

04:40because there's so much more we need to know, and with this, with the

04:44reauthorization of the brain injury program, it gives families hope. It

04:49gives, it gives people the ability to have someplace to turn. It gives

04:54researchers, those that are trying to dive into this, some more answers,

04:57because it's not the doctor's fault. It's not the neurology fault. It's not

05:00the Wesleyan Medical Center. It's not the Cleveland Clinic. I don't blame

05:03them. They did the best they could.

05:06It's just they did the best they could, and there's so much more that we can be

05:10that can be done. There's so much more studies that need to happen. There's so

05:15many more answers that need to be, that need to be explained. Like, I didn't

05:19know a frontal lobe injury causes you to have, for adolescence, that it stunts

05:23your growth. We had no idea that until we're three months into it, and three

05:28months into it, his, his growth plates are closed. So Jim's gonna be five foot

05:32three the rest of his life, which is fine, but it's, little things like that, if you

05:39had the information ahead of time, you can make better informed decisions, which

05:43we didn't have. So I appreciate this committee working in this manner.

05:47Senator Levin, I hate that you started it with an emotional, because you got me

05:51emotional before I even started, and I don't cry, I promise you. Actually, I do,

05:54but I, I do appreciate this committee working in a bipartisan manner, because

05:59this is something that's important to all of us, and we've heard the stories

06:01around here, so thank you. Senator, Chairman, we don't always get along, but

06:06in this, I do appreciate your, your attention to it. Well, thank you, and thank

06:11you. I mean, this is what real legislation is about. It comes from

06:15personal experience, and we thank you very much, Senator Mullin, for sharing

06:19your own experience, and we wish you some of the very best.

Markwayne Mullin Gets Emotional Telling Story Of His Son Getting A Traumatic Brain Injury

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