While Ohio State walk-on tight end Zak Herbstreit was released from the hospital on Wednesday after spending five days in the hospital with a heart issue, his father says his recovery is only just beginning.
During an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show Thursday, Kirk Herbstreit said his son has returned home after his release from the hospital Wednesday but that he is now facing a three-to-four-month process to see how he recovers before he can consider returning to football.
“We had a setback with Zak, with his health, this past Friday. So really the last five or six days have been kind of a whirlwind of he’s been in the hospital with some issues with his heart, and we’ve just been trying to keep up with that,” Kirk Herbstreit said. “We brought him home yesterday, which is great, but it’s not like, normally you get out of the hospital and you’re cured and everything’s good. He’s in good spirits, he’s home with us, where his mom can take really good care of him. And this is just going to be a long process to kind of see how his heart responds to some of the medications that he’s on. And this is like a three- or four-month kind of thing to kind of see how it recovers.”
"We had a setback with Zak last Friday and the last week or so has been a real whirlwind..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 22, 2023
He's at home in good spirits and it's gonna be a long process to see how his heart responds"
All of the positive vibes @KirkHerbstreit #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/fDdQH6ca76
Kirk Hebstreit said his son’s heart issue was diagnosed after Zak underwent an echocardiogram. Initially, doctors believed Zak had pneumonia, but the EKG determined that his heart was the reason why he was not feeling well.
“I really would encourage anybody who’s playing sports to just go a little more than just doing your normal physical,” Kirk said. “The echo is what you really need to discover some things that potentially can be scary. So we’re very fortunate that he got the echo and found some stuff.
“He was originally diagnosed with pneumonia, because they thought he had some fluid in his lungs. But that turned out not to be the case at all. But he had very few symptoms. You would never know that he was dealing with what he’s dealing with.
“So we’re at the beginning of this. We’re going to be positive. And it’s a long haul, and he’s going to get better.”
Just an update on Zak. He came home yesterday from the hospital and is happy to be with his family. With that being said, like I mentioned earlier, this is a long process. Will take months to see how his heart is responding to his medication. We are hopeful he will be okay but
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) June 22, 2023
Kirk expressed gratitude to everyone who has reached out to him and his family to share their concern and support for Zak.
“It’s easy to get caught up in how cynical the world is and how negative the world is. And something like this happens, and I can’t even tell you how many people have reached out, and it’s impossible to reach out to everybody, back to them. But I’ve just been overwhelmed with how many people we’ve heard from,” Kirk said. “You can’t even imagine the amount of people that have reached out and are concerned about him. So yeah, to everybody that has reached out, we really appreciate that and feel that wholeheartedly.”
Zak Herbstreit is entering his third year as a member of the Ohio State football team after joining the Buckeyes in the summer of 2021. He appeared in three games as a reserve tight end in 2022.
