Sean Binning Returns From Lifesaving Emergency Brain Surgery To Win MAAC Diver of the Year

Rider University freshman Sean Binning had a breakout performance at the 2022 MAAC Championships in early February, claiming the conference’s Diver of the Year honors after winning the men’s 1-meter and finishing second in the 3-meter event.

But these accomplishments pale in comparison to the adversity he’s overcome in the last three years.

In March of 2019, Binning was going through a normal day when he got a headache. After initially figuring that it was a standard migraine, his symptoms began to worsen, getting to the point where he was vomiting and couldn’t communicate effectively. He then began to feel numbness on the entire right side of his body, similar to a feeling of being paralyzed.

After going to the hospital, doctors revealed that he had an AVM (arteriovenous malformation) rupture, and immediately rushed him into emergency brain surgery.

After a surgery that lasted six or seven hours, where part of his skull was removed to relieve pressure on the AVM, Binning was then put into a coma for nearly three weeks.

“I was sedated for 18 days, and then I never really got completely conscious for three weeks or so, because I thought some of this stuff was a dream,” Binning told SwimSwam. “I kept getting woken up so they could see how I was doing, but then my vitals just went crazy, so I stayed sedated for 18 days.”

When he woke up, he had no memory of anything that occurred, and essentially had to re-learn basic human functions that we take for granted in everyday life. He had a tracheostomy in order to help him breath, and a feeding tube for nutrition.

In order to communicate, all he could do was give a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to the doctors and his family.

“I finally started understanding what was going on, ‘like, okay, I’m in the hospital,’ but I didn’t know what year it is, I don’t know what day it is, I don’t even know what just happened. I was conscious but I don’t know what’s going on, and I can’t talk because of the trach.

“I had to learn how to breathe again, how to swallow, how to eat, how to do these basic life functions again. I was 15 at that time, so having to do it again was just insane.”

Binning then went to rehab, where he slowly but surely learned how to walk again while also undergoing speech therapy as he began his journey back to normal life.

“I didn’t like it, obviously,” he said. “Mainly it was just really frustrating, and it was struggling. Looking back, it was just the easiest things (that I could no longer do). I used to be active, I used to do all these things, and now I can’t even walk without help. It was just frustrating during that.”

During this period of time, Binning didn’t have part of his skull as it was removed during the initial surgery. He went back for a second surgery in late April 2019 to remove the AVM and replace the part of his skull that was missing.

Binning’s diving career first began in 2015, starting off by just doing it in the summer before he started to really enjoy it, which led him to join the Dominion Dive Club in Vienna, Va.

As he crept back into feeling more and more like himself after the surgery, the sport was something he was itching to return to as soon as possible.

“Later on, I want to get back into diving. I have the muscle memories from it again, why stop?”

But before that, Binning had to get back into adequate physical condition. He had lost 40 pounds throughout the surgery and sedation process, so he began eating as much as he could and lifting weights (PT exercises without weight to start with).

After starting out by just swimming, it was September 5, 2019, six months after the AVM rupture, when Binning was able to go head-first into the water for the first time, starting to get his feel back for diving.

Things didn’t go entirely smoothly once he started getting back on the boards, as he would often encounter numbness/paralysis on his right arm after completing a dive.

While he figured this might just be a “normal” symptom for someone diving who had just had two brain surgeries, a CT scan showed his skull got infected during the second surgery, leading to a third surgery in November 2020 to replace that part of the skull with a 3D printed plastic skull.

Three days before that third surgery, he signed his letter of intent to go to Rider University, beginning in the 2021-22 season.

Working with his club coaches, Binning got back into diving again, little by little, leading into what was a breakout freshman year at Rider.

“I’m just, surprised now. From where I am now to where I was before…just incredible. I’m surprised how I was able to improve so quickly.”

Initially starting out only diving on 1-meter, Binning didn’t begin to train again on 3-meter until April 2021. 10 months later, he was the MAAC runner-up in the event, while winning the 1-meter decisively.

“I had no intention to win MAACs or even that I had a chance for winning,” Binning said on his success. “I was just happy to still be diving, especially at a D1 school.

“I wouldn’t be here without my parents, coaches and teammates, they were incredibly supportive of me through the whole thing.”

Moving forward, Binning’s goals for next season include qualifying for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships.

He also wants his story to be an inspiration for others to persevere through any setbacks they might have in their lives in pursuit of athletic goals.

“My advice would be to push through it,” Binning said. “The hardest point has already happened, now it’s easy.

“I’ll tell you this, though: It’s going to be different than before, and there will be ups and downs. But it’s nowhere as bad as what you’ve been through. And, if you stay with it until the end, it’s 100 percent worth it.

“You can look back about what you’ve been through, where you are now, and be proud of yourself.”