Austin Carlile Makes Public Appearance, Gives Moving Speech About Marfan Syndrome

Ex-Of Mice & Men vocalist Austin Carlile has made a public appearance last night, at the OHSU Knight Cardiovascular Institute, to talk about Marfan Syndrome. It’s been a while since Austin Carlile has been in the United States. A few weeks ago he flew to the United States for surgery due to two cysts found on his spine. He gave a speech about his brave and ungoing battle with Marfan Syndrome.

Carlile opened up about the death of his mother, the constant struggle of Marfan Syndrome and his departure of Of Mice & Men, while standing wearing a cane. He gets very emotional at times, due to the fact that it is all very real, given he has to fly to Stanford again today (June 24th) to do more testing.

As a kid, Carlile was very active and into sports, something he had to quit aswell when he was diagnosed with Marfan Syndrome. This was the moment for him that he went into rock music. He said the following:
“I started a rock and roll band around the time that my mom passed away. I didn’t really have much else to do. I did sports. I was a very active kid and when I was told I had Marfan Syndrome, I had to quit. I said, “what should I do next, lets try music”. I followed it and it’s something that kind of came.”

Austin Carlile continued to share about the struggles he faced being on tour with Of Mice & Men, sharing the following:
“I got home from a tour one time. I couldn’t perform anymore. I had three dural tears in my spine. My spinal fluid was leaking. I went to two or three different doctors and was turned away. I had a doctor call me a liar. I went to Stanford… twenty minutes later they told me exactly what it was.”

His entire speech can be seen below.