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| Scholastic Sports & RecFriday, July 18, 2008 11:39 PM CDT |
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Kindred: West grad caught in a dangerous game of life, breath
Zach Zwaga sat in the Heartland Community College library Thursday, as good a place as any to search for the right words. He wore a Milwaukee Brewers’ cap and T-shirt with ace pitcher Ben Sheets’ No. 15 on the back. One look and you knew. This guy loves baseball. Yet, only if he told you would you know he can’t play right now, and that at age 20, he might not play again. His is a story of unheeded warning signs, missed diagnosis, a “play through anything” mentality and, ultimately, a life-threatening condition. Even he has difficulty making sense of it, explaining it. A 20-year-old isn’t supposed to end up in a cardiac unit with patients three and four times his age. He isn’t expected to have blood clots form in his legs, travel to his lungs, impair circulation and put pressure on his heart, reducing it to 40 percent efficiency. Zwaga was a picture of health while starring as a catcher at Normal West High School and earning a scholarship to Illinois-Chicago and, later, Heartland. Yet, when he played his first game for Heartland — in early March in Mississippi — something wasn’t right. He ran from his catchers’ spot to back up a play at first base and was short of breath. “I thought, ‘It’s the first game, we’ve been inside all winter, I’m out of shape a little bit. It’ll get better,’ ” Zwaga said. He pressed on. He gutted it out. He said nothing. Shortly thereafter, Heartland traveled to Florida for more games. Zwaga was running out of breath even quicker. His hitting and defense suffered. A guy who figured to be a cornerstone for Heartland’s first-year program needed a couple of deep breaths just to throw the ball back to the pitcher. “That’s when I started thinking, ‘What’s going on?’ ” Zwaga said. “When I got back, that’s when I told my parents, and we decided I should see someone about it.” Zwaga was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma. He was given an inhaler and medication to help his breathing. He pressed on. He gutted it out. He said nothing to Heartland coach Nate Metzger. And he didn’t get better. Lou and Jamie Zwaga took the oldest of their three sons to another doctor. The diagnosis was the same, and Zach was given a prescription for prednisone. He showed no improvement. Arriving at first base now required a puff of the inhaler, which Zwaga kept in the back pocket of his uniform. Still, he said nothing to Metzger, and when the team trainer asked if he was all right, he said yes. “I didn’t want to let my teammates down, I didn’t want to let my coaches down,” Zwaga said. “I knew I wasn’t playing up to the level I should have been, but I didn’t want to come out.” Finally, he did, and a trip to a cardiologist, followed by extensive tests during a four-day stay at BroMenn Regional Medical Center in mid-April, revealed a large pulmonary embolism (blood clot) and several small ones in Zwaga’s lung. He was put on blood thinner and had his activity severely restricted. No running, no exertion, no baseball. His season was over, but his life was not. He knows now it could have been … that by pressing on he put himself in danger. “I could have legged out a single and just collapsed and died,” Zwaga said. “That happens. I have an aunt who is a nurse in Toronto, and she said, ‘I’ve seen kids your age die from this.’ ” It is believed Zwaga’s blood clots formed in his legs during the long bus rides to Mississippi and Florida. He experienced pain in his legs, but did not get up to move around. It was the first of many things he kept to himself. “One thing I could have done better is told someone earlier,” he said of his symptoms. “Had I gotten it looked at earlier, and they had seen what was going on, I could have been on blood thinners right away and I could have played this season.” Instead, Zwaga continues to take blood thinners in hopes of dissolving the clots in his lungs. He still cannot run or exert himself, but no longer needs to stop to catch his breath while walking two blocks from his apartment to Heartland. Zwaga remains hopeful of fulfilling his commitment to play baseball next year at Edgewood College in Madison, Wis. He will undergo tests next week to see what progress has been made, and how much of the damage to his heart was permanent. The thought of never playing again makes him squirm in his chair. He didn’t expect to be in this position, and offered advice to help others avoid it. “Be smart about it,” he says to them. “If you’re having difficulty breathing, or doing anything, and you don’t feel right, tell someone. Don’t try to tough it out like I did.” His mother agreed, saying, “He was his own worst enemy. We let him play too long.” She hopes people will learn from that, and suggested high school and college coaches should be trained in CPR for breathing/heart related emergencies. Through it all, Zwaga said he feels lucky. He has been touched by the support from his family, friends, teammates and coaches, and the care he received from his doctors and nurses. “They’ve all been great,” he said. “This could have been a lot worse. I’m thankful that it wasn’t.” Randy Kindred is a Pantagraph columnist. To leave him a voice mail, call 820-3402. By e-mail: rkindred@pantagraph.com. The Randy Kindred Blog is at www.pantagraph.com/blogs E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.
viking1 wrote on Jul 17, 2008 9:44 PM:
keep your chin up buddy. I just wanted you to know that you are in my families thoughts and prayers. Keep in touch.
Your Friend,
Coach Roop "
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