Mateusz Ponitka is one of the most intriguing additions to Partizan this season. He is a player who can cover positions from point guard to small forward, and he is also an excellent defender and a very tough and dedicated fighter.
However, what is not widely known in the public is the serious problems the Polish player had. It all happened during a match with Zenit, where he took a hit to the nose. Although it seemed harmless, according to his words, the bleeding couldn’t be stopped.
“First time so much blood in my life. We tried to stop the bleeding, I thought it was a mistake. Maybe it should have gone all the way. We stopped the bleeding, I went for a test, sorry for the scanning. And the scan said there were no bone fractures. They said everything was okay, but nothing changed, I felt dizzy, I played some games like that.
When I was in Russia, it was minus 20, and it wasn’t so bad because I didn’t feel pain because of that. Then we flew to play against Baskonia in the double week of the EuroLeague. The flight was a disaster, I felt really bad in the sinuses and nasal part. I couldn’t play, I was bleeding a lot, and I had a fever,” Mateusz Ponitka begins in his interview for Sport Klub.
The next game was in Madrid, where the current Partizan basketball player insisted on seeing a doctor, and there he received shocking news.
“The doctor said I needed surgery. I asked, “What do you mean?” Surgery as soon as possible. You have two blood clots in the nasal part on both sides. It was hard for me to breathe; I could only breathe through my mouth, and I hadn’t slept for six nights because I couldn’t breathe. It was very bad, and then they said it would be a standard procedure, 45 minutes. We will put you on the program immediately because it’s urgent. The surgery didn’t last 45 minutes but almost two hours.
They put me under anesthesia, cleaned everything, and couldn’t wake me up for a while. The pain was a significant problem; after the surgery, you have a room where you wake up after anesthesia. I saw people waking up happy and fresh. When I woke up, it hurt so much that I cried,” Ponitka recalls.
When he woke up, he received yet another incredible piece of information: that he would likely have been dead in the next few days if he hadn’t undergone the surgery.
“This was on Thursday, and I returned to the hotel. The next day, the doctor said to me and my wife, ‘See, sir, your wife is here, and I will tell you right away. In a few days, one, maybe two, maybe three, I don’t know exactly how many, but you would probably be dead.’
There was an inflammation in the nasal part, and we had to clean everything, and that’s why you need to take care of yourself more. At least three weeks, you shouldn’t do anything, and you have to be mindful of all these things,” Mateusz explained.