Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar, who led the team to three AFC championship game appearances, has been diagnosed with liver disease and was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
In an Exclusive with Cleveland Magazine , he revealed the news about his liver and said, “My body gave out on me.”
The 60-year-old legend hoped to recover on his own, but after he went to the hospital this year, the doctors were shocked to see him still walking around.
“I sucked it up, though, and continued to avoid the doctors until the new year. Then I went into the hospital and got a massive blood transfusion. It was like: ‘How are you alive? How are you moving? Because your hemoglobin levels are so low.”’
According to his revelation in Cleveland Magazine, he was placed on a transplant list in late spring.
The former NFL quarterback further explained how he was diagnosed with cirrhosis 16 months ago. However, he mentions that a serious health scare occurred at a Thursday Night Football game between the Browns and the New York Jets he attended last season.
He said in the exclusive, “My body gave out on me. I really felt like I wasn’t going to make it home from the Jets game.”
Fortunately, his body has begun to recover following exercise, healthy eating, and taking medications, and supplements. His doctor says there is a 90% chance that he’ll need a new liver. That is why he was placed on the liver transplant list.
He was also diagnosed in February with Parkinson’s, a neurodegenerative disease that affects the brain. He suffered many concussions throughout his career and in an interview, he revealed that he’d have suffered more than 100 and also endured 15 seizures as a player.
Ex-Browns QB, Bernie Kosher led the team in the AFC Championship Game in the 1986, 1987, and 1989 seasons.
