SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Jazz general manager Justin Zanik is preparing for a kidney transplant on Tuesday.
This comes after he was diagnosed with a genetic condition last fall. He says his wife made him get a check-up because he was so tired.
Then came word his kidneys were on the verge of total failure — functioning at a 14 percent level. Zanik was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease and needed a transplant.
The surgery is expected to take up to three hours. He is expected to be discharged three days after the surgery. After three weeks, he should be cleared to return to his job, and he plans to resume a full-time workload in six weeks.
“I’m not out of the business,” Zanik said. “I’m basically taking a rest for about three to six weeks and then I’ll be back. I’ll be on the phone. I’ll be running the draft and I’ll be running the team, trying to make us better, and I’m excited about it.”
Sharing that news with family and friends was especially troubling because Zanik said he prefers to be the one who sees to others' needs.
"I've always been the one that helps fix everything else and support, so it was hard for me to talk about me needing to be fixed," he said.
It's something Zanik anticipated he might have to deal with in his lifetime.
"I kind of knew it from my family history. My dad was transplanted almost 21 years ago, still alive, doing great in good health," he said.
FOX 13 News spoke with Dr. Anitha Vijayan, the medical director of Intermountain Health Kidney Services. While she isn't the one performing the transplant on Zanik, she gave more insight into his condition.
"Polycystic kidney disease is a genetic condition where the kidneys fill up with fluid containing cavities. Those are the cysts that we talk about," Vijayan said. "This is called an autosomal dominant condition... and so it is passed directly from parents to their children and subsequently to their children as well. It typically doesn't skip a generation."
Zanik said his father also suffers from polycystic kidney disease and had a kidney transplant in 2003. The transplant was successful, and his kidney is still functioning well 21 years later.
That means there is a chance Zanik's three children, ranging in age from 12 to 16 years old, could also be impacted by the disease at some point in their lives.
It just so happens that this news comes on the first day of April, which is National Donate Life Month.
"There is nearly 110,000 people nationwide who are on the organ wait list," said Mark Dixon with Donor Connect. "The vast majority of those people are waiting for kidney transplants. In Utah, we've got nearly 900 people that are on that same wait list."
Brady Dransfield is another man who received a kidney transplant and talked to FOX 13 about the lifesaving procedure.
"[I had] a birth defect, and because of that birth defect, they were able to slow it down at the age of 21. That's when it started occurring again," he said.
That was in 1994, and fortunately, he had a family member who was able to be the living donor.
"Luckily my dad was a great match, and so we went with his kidney," Dransfield said.
Zanik expressed his gratitude and encouraged others to donate if they can.
"Kidney transplants are one of those gifts that you can give to people to prolong their lives while you're still alive," he said.
Meanwhile, the team is fully behind him.
“The Utah Jazz send our love and support to General Manager Justin Zanik, his wife Gina, and their family," the Jazz said in a statement. "JZ is an instrumental part of our organization, and we look forward to his return in the coming weeks."
