Former Detroit Lions general manager and longtime NFL linebacker Matt Millen is in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant. According to Peter King of NBC’s Football Morning in America, Millen has been in a New Jersey hospital for the last 68 days as he awaits a heart transplant.
http://gty.im/455983060
Matt Millen stepped away from his job as a game analyst for the Big Ten Network back on October 3rd to further focus on his health. Millen suffers from amyloidosis, a diagnosis he revealed last spring.
According to the Mayo Clinic, amyloidosis is a rare disease that occurs when a substance called amyloid builds up in your organs. In Matt Millen’s case, the amyloid is being deposited in his heart and impacting its ability to function.
Though there is no cure, amyloidosis is treated with chemotherapy to stop the growth of abnormal cells that produce amyloid. While Millen has been receiving weekly chemotherapy treatment, doctors have said he needs a heart transplant, since his heart is working at about 30 percent capacity according to an article published by The Morning Call back in April.
Because it often goes undiagnosed, amyloidosis carries life-threatening effects.
http://gty.im/456538986
The 60-year-old Millen is in an undisclosed hospital in New Jersey, where he will remain until he receives a new heart. According to King: “…he needs a transplant fairly soon; problem is, he doesn’t know what ‘fairly soon’ means. He feels fine now, but he’ll be in the hospital till, he hopes, he gets a heart to replace his sick one.”
King has promised to have more on Millen and his heart transplant on his podcast that will be released Wednesday.
Millen was hired by the Detroit Lions as President and chief executive officer in 2001. His eight-year tenure as head of the franchise lasted from the time of his hiring in 2001 until week 4 of the 2008 NFL season.
Under Millen, the Lions went 31-84 for a .270 winning percentage, the worst eight-year record in the history of the modern NFL. Millen was the mastermind that brought together the personnel and coaching staff that made up the 2008 Lions team, a team which will go down in infamy as the first in NFL history to finish a season 0-16.
While Lions fans likely will never forgive the organization for the Millen era, hopefully, Millen receives good news about his life-saving surgery soon.
