Six years after Gino Odjick was at death’s door, the heart ailment that had doctors telling him he had just a year to live at best has returned.
The former Canucks enforcer, nicknamed the Maniwaki Mauler, told Ottawa francophone newspaper Le Droit his doctors determined about a month ago that he was once again dealing with amyloidosis, a rare condition that produces protein deposits in the heart.
A bout with the disease in 2014 reduced his heart function to just 25 per cent of its usual power and doctors told him he should prepare for the end.
A last-ditch attempt at chemotheraphy at an Ottawa hospital reversed his condition. The hope then was that he wouldn’t have a recurrence of the disease for another 20 years.
“It came back about a month ago,” he told Le Droit.
“They (his doctors) found it early, so I am very confident that I will be able to get rid of it. It was a shock, but what can you do? … There were several treatment options, but I asked to follow the same one I had in Ottawa as it had worked. I’m on chemo for the next six months.”
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