At the age of 55, for Bob Brams, a former high school and college wrestler, all was going so well in his legal career and life. Bob was hitting his stride at the top of his practice of over 35 years.

But after a minor fender bender and pestering neck pain, an MRI seemed to be in order. The MRI results went far beyond anything Brams ever expected. Brams was diagnosed with brain cancer; one of the most overwhelming challenges a person will ever face in life.

As it turned out, Brams had a 6-centimeter mass on his left frontal lobe.

Bob, his loving wife, and their two college-bound children, were totally thrown stunned by the cancer diagnosis. And to boot, all of these serious problems were happening over the holidays. Of course, the season turned out to be anything but festive, and the family’s winter trip was promptly canceled.

After the first of two lengthy brain surgeries, Bob ended up with serious complications. Among other setbacks, Brams had a grand mal seizure, a hemorrhagic stroke, a brain bleed, a coma and life support. Things became so desperate that the neurosurgeon gave Brams only a 1% chance of surviving and began preparing the family for the worst. Brams was considered the sickest person on the neuro intensive care unit and he was characterized as a “catastrophic loss.” Despite all he had endured for months, Brams has no memory of any of it.

Following his surgery, Bob was ambulanced to a rehabilitation hospital in Washington DC for a three-and-a-half week stay with 24/7 care. Bob then went through years of therapy to help him to walk, speak and to think. The grit and discipline he endured throughout his wrestling days helped him beat the odds.

While he’ll have regular MRI’s for life to monitor any cancer growth, Brams fights ahead and refuses to be a statistic. He remains standing strong with the heart of a wrestler. With the coma and other complications, Brams missed virtually all of his son’s wrestling matches during his senior year of high school. Brams had rarely missed any of his son’s matches.

Although now retired due to his brain cancer, Brams was a partner and practice group chair in one of the top international law firms in Washington, D.C., and had a hard driving legal practice around the world. Among other notable matters, Brams traveled to Brazil as counsel for the program director for the 2016 Olympics, and even represented USA Wrestling in its successful effort to bring wrestling back into the Olympics. Brams also sits on the Board of Directors for Beat the Streets (BTS). BTS gets inner city students off the streets and onto the mats! One goal of BTS is to minimize crime.

What Wrestling Can Do: Bob Brams on beating brain cancer and giving back to the sport

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