It's turning out to be a rough year for the old guard of Bay Area sports announcers, and now 49ers play-by-play guy and longtime local sports radio figure Greg Papa is facing another in a series of health crises which is sidelining him from doing what he loves as football season begins.
KNBR radio voice and NBC Sports Bay Area's 49ers play-by-play announcer Greg Papa is hospitalized again, as we learned last week. But now he's hoping to get in line for a heart transplant, as Bay Area News Group reports. He is currently being stabilized on medication, and surgery to implant an LVAD pump next to heart is also a possibility.
But as the Chronicle reports, his case was being presented today at 3 pm to the UCSF Health Heart Transplant Board, and we should learn soon whether he will be going the transplant route. Previously, doctors had refused to discuss a transplant because it was deemed far too risky so soon after Papa other procedures, and given his medical state.
Papa, who will be 64 in a few weeks, has already had an extremely rough and taxing 13 months or so, since being diagnosed last summer with leukemia. He came out of that, after a bone marrow transplant from his sister this past winter and extensive treatment, only to end up with a lung infection related to that treatment.
On September 5, he tells Bay Area News Group, he woke up with very labored breathing, and on the 7th, just before he was set to serve as in-studio analyst for the 49ers season opener in Australia, he was diagnosed with advanced heart failure.
The news about Papa's condition comes just as local sports fans were also reeling from news that beloved SF Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper is battling throat cancer, which is unrelated to cancer he was treated for five years ago. He was still planning to be back in the booth today (Tuesday) for the final game of his longtime broadcast partner Mike Krukow, who is retiring.
This all came at a tragically bad time for Papa's morale, after he had only just been reinstated at his home station, KNBR, who had laid him off in early August, with plans to return to weekday radio later this month. We learned that news on September 10, just before the 49ers were kicking off Down Under, and after Papa had already been hospitalized for three days.
"I’ve already had a lot of miracles," Papa tells the Chronicle. "Hail Mary touchdowns to at least force overtime. But when does the game end? I don’t know. Can you expect to get a miracle every time? Physically, there’s a toll."
He added, "Two weeks ago, I was preparing to step out of the darkness and go back into the sunlight and resume my world. Everything changed in a span of a couple days. It was like I was living in a time warp."
After spending 78 days at UCSF earlier this summer, he was not eager to be back there so soon. But, he tells the Chronicle, using another football metaphor, "I’m a little cornered right now. And I’ve got to find a way to squirm out of it. Got to break a few tackles."
Previously: Beloved Sports Radio Figure Greg Papa to Return to KNBR In Part-Time Role, a Month After Being Laid Off
Join the conversation
Comments
Comments load automatically as this section approaches.