Estimated read time: 7-8 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Gina Zanik noticed something was off with her husband. He looked more fatigued, more slugging; his usual energy just wasn't there.
That was easy for Justin Zanik to explain away.
Of course he was tired, he thought when his wife brought it up. The Utah Jazz general manager had gone to the World Cup in Japan and the Philippines and then took another trip to Australia shortly after that. Fatigue comes with the job of running an NBA team. There's a reason he always had Red Bull in hand.
Gina, though, wasn't convinced. She'd seen her husband go on long trips before and have even more hectic summers. Something was different.
So just before the Jazz began training camp last fall, Justin, somewhat begrudgingly, heeded his wife's advice and saw a doctor.
It was his first physical in eight years. On Tuesday, just six months later, he will receive a kidney transplant.
What happened between those two moments can be described as frightening, humbling and even heartwarming. In that time, Justin Zanik has become a self-described "deputy nephrologist" and an advocate for living donors — and yet, he still has the strong desire to finish out what he has started with the Utah Jazz.
"As we take the next step in this journey, we would like to extend our deepest gratitude to University of Utah Health and their incredible medical staff," the Zanik family said in a statement. "The care, expertise, and guidance they have provided our family and many others, has been invaluable. We also want to recognize and thank the Living Donor Program for the extraordinary life-saving work that they do."
The diagnosis
The results from the physical were coming back just as Zanik expected: His blood pressure was normal and his cholesterol was just where it should be. His lungs were clear, his skin was in good shape and his heart was healthy.
But there was one issue.
"My kidney function was at 14%," Zanik said.
That meant he had kidney failure. It was a diagnosis that was hard to hear, but maybe one that wasn't completely unexpected.
Zanik's father has a condition called polycystic kidney disease, or PKD. It's a genetic disease in which cysts grow in the kidneys and slowly impede their functions. The condition caused Zanik's father to have a kidney transplant 21 years ago.
"I kind of always knew that I could have it," Zanik admitted. "I just never really wanted to deal with it."
Suddenly, he was forced to.
According to Michael Zimmerman, a transplant and hepatobiliary surgeon at the University of Utah Health, it's not uncommon for those dealing with PKD to go years without it getting diagnosed. Patients usually chalk up the extra fatigue, intermittent nausea and random muscle cramping to something else. That can make it a relatively silent disease.
Zanik felt mostly fine, after all. Sure, there was some extra fatigue, but he had a high-stress job, three teenage kids and he was getting older. It was easy to explain the symptoms away.
"I think most people are really good about going to the doctor when they feel sick," Zanik said. "It's going to the doctor when you don't. It's really, really important."
After hearing the diagnosis, Zanik's mind started swirling with what it all meant. Did this mean he was going to have to go on dialysis? Could he keep his job? And the worst: Was he going to die?
The options
There are only two options to treat kidney failure: dialysis and transplant.
There was good news for Zanik on that front: Due to his age and fitness level, he was an excellent transplant candidate. The next step, though, was finding a suitable kidney.
There are over 90,000 people in the country waiting for a kidney. For those with Zanik's blood type, the wait time on the diseased donor list can last up to three to five years.
And when it came to finding a living donor, his condition added some complications. Since PKD is a genetic disease, his immediate family was automatically ruled out as potential donors. That led to some tough conversations with friends.
Zanik is a fixer by nature; he likes to solve problems. It's why running an NBA team appealed to him in the first place. The situation put him in a foreign spot — he was the one who needed to be mended.
"I'm the one that fixes everything in people's lives — here, my personal life, my kids — and so to have that feeling that I need to be fixed and I need to ask for help was kind of hard," Zanik said.
He was forced to talk with friends and extended family about getting tested to be a potential donor, and was overcome by how many people were willing to help. He soon had nearly two dozen people saying they'd be willing to volunteer. That was unexpected.
"The support and love that I've gotten from my friends and people you wouldn't even think of just saying, 'Hey, I'm going to donate. I want to help.' People I've known for like three months," he said, his voice cracking with emotion.
Finding a kidney
On Tuesday morning, in a place far from Utah, a donor Zanik has never met will have surgery to remove their kidney. That kidney will then be flown to Utah for Zanik's surgery in the afternoon.
"He doesn't even have a donor-recipient match. He doesn't know who I am. It's not my position. It's not me. It's just a good Samaritan saying I can help someone," Zanik said. "And that kidney is as good of a match for me as it would be my own brother."
That was made possible due to the Living Donor Program, a program that matches living kidney donors to recipients.
The burden of finding the right kidney used to fall mostly on the recipient. Patients would reach out to friends and family and then hope one of the volunteers would be a good enough match for a transplant to work.
Through the Living Donor Program — and similar paired exchange systems — someone can donate on a patient's behalf. The system then matches donors and recipients from across the country that are the most compatible.
It has moved the burden from the patient onto the system — and has led to remarkable results.
Zanik had about 20 people test for him to become a donor. On April 5, one of those will donate a kidney on his behalf.
Jeff Hart is married to Gina's best friend, and when the Zaniks asked for potential donors, he was one of the first movers. Even as more people volunteered to be tested to be a donor, Hart was adamant that he wanted to be the one to do it. He wanted to help save a life.
Hart's kidney isn't a match for Zanik, but it is a match for someone else in the registry system. His kidney will go to another recipient in need. That's the power of the Living Donor Program; it decreases the amount of time recipients have to wait for a kidney, and it facilitates better matches overall.
"You've heard about like eight-person chains and 14-person chains with this," Zanik said. "It's a way to save lives."
Recovery
Zanik wants to make this clear: "It's not an end. It's a beginning for me."
He'll be out of the hospital three days after surgery and plans on returning to his work with the Jazz about six weeks later. He'll monitor pre-draft workouts, analyze potential offseason moves, run the draft in June and continue the rebuilding project he helped begin two years ago.
"I've never had the desire to not do what I'm doing, and continue to work here and build with this project that we're doing," he said.
He's not stepping down or even stepping back. He's simply taking some weeks to recover, and then he'll be right back to work.
"I'll be on the phone and I'll be running the team and trying to make us better," he said. "And I'm excited about it."
He plans to use his platform to speak out on kidney disease and kidney awareness. He knew about a potential risk, and it still almost went unchecked. He doesn't want others to make the same mistake. He also plans to be an advocate for living donors.
"It's an unbelievable gift," he said. "It's one of the few organs you can donate while you're still alive."
Life will be different for Zanik.
He'll be on anti-rejection drugs for the remainder of his life that will artificially suppress his immune system. That will leave him more susceptible to infection, viruses and certain cancers. But there are positives, too, like an increase in energy that is expected to come with the new kidney.
"Maybe I won't even need the Red Bulls anymore," he said with a smile.
