Bad news for the Utah Jazz: Star player will have to undergo unexpected kidney surgery….
The Utah Jazz have bad news: general manager Justin Zanik will require emergency kidney surgery.
Which circumstance impacts the general manager of the team?
The Utah Jazz’s 2023–2024 NBA season was already challenging, but new information cast further doubt on the team’s future. Today, Tuesday, April 2, general manager Justin Zanik announced that he will have kidney transplant surgery.
Zanik disclosed his diagnosis of polycystic kidney disease (PKD) in an early March statement on the team’s website. The National Kidney Registry’s Living Donor Program helped the manager locate a donor.
Zanik’s family has a hereditary propensity for kidney disorders. It wasn’t until his wife Gina insisted that he get checked out that Justin learned about his condition. His father Phil Zanik had had the same disease and needed a kidney transplant 21 years prior.
Gina insisted that she saw her husband looking more exhausted than normal during the 2023 offseason. Zanik, however, ascribed this to the overwhelming workload he had encountered lately; nevertheless, he granted his wife’s request to visit the doctor.
The prompt diagnosis
Zanik’s examination revealed excellent findings in every category with the exception of kidney function, which was 14%. Kidney failure is diagnosed with a result of less than 15%.
The outcome deeply hurt Zanik. “Your initial concerns are along the lines of, ‘What will happen to me?'” How does dialysis work? When will that take place? transplant? In an interview with the Jazz website, the manager said, “You think about all those things.”
He and Gina saw a nephrologist right away, and they were guided step-by-step through the diagnosis and donor search procedure. The average person views being an organ donor as something very distant, as acknowledged by Zanik, which explains why the waiting period for a kidney is three to five years.
“But a living donor transplant, which has been possible for a while, is what’s really amazing about modern science and medical technology. Whereas a person who matches you according to blood type and numerous other factors [can work],” Zanik clarified.
Even though Zanik’s kidney was not a match, someone close to him was able to donate one through the Living Donor Program. Zanik received access to a suitable donor in return, practically like having a family member.
The Jazz general manager is now scheduled to go into surgery, spend three to four days in the hospital, and, based on his own words, possibly return to work in a little over three weeks.
The team released a statement expressing its full support for Zanik in this regard. “A post on the Utah Jazz’s X account states that the team is sending love and support to general manager Justin Zanik, his wife Gina, and their family as Justin prepares for a kidney transplant to address polycystic kidney disease.”
The Zanik family, for their part, stated, “We would like to express our sincere gratitude to University of Utah Health and their amazing medical staff. They have given our family and many others priceless care, knowledge, and direction.”
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