MMA Fighter Suffers Traumatic Brain Injury

Randy Rozek • June 7, 2014

Dan Kiser, a MMA fighter from Wisconsin was critically injured during a professional fight at the Kent Freeman Arena in Detroit, Michigan. MMA, which stands for Mixed Martial Arts, is a full-contact fighting/combat sport. Fighters use a mixture of grappling techniques, judo, karate, and kickboxing.

Forum News Service reported that Kiser was knocked out and the referee stopped the fight. He was unresponsive and the referee called the fight and the paramedics were called. He was rushed to the hospital and then moved to Sanford Medical Center in Fargo.

Ben Pherson, who runs MN MMA News, said that Kiser suffered a traumatic brain injury and had surgery the night of the fight. Fluid was drained off of the brain to help relieve swelling and pressure.

Kiser’s father, Dan Kiser Sr., said that “He is out of the woods as far as fighting for staying here on earth; he turned that hard corner. Now, he’s fighting for things like how much rehab he’s going to have to do. The word the doctors use is ‘deficits.’ How many deficits will he have when this is done? That’s what he’s fighting for now.”

Kiser has been taken off of life support and is breathing on his own, but his condition still remains uncertain. He has along road ahead of him. “It’s just too early to say what’s going to happen and what isn’t,” said Jeremy Bjornberg, Kiser’s manager.