Utah Jazz: Miller granted 'second life'

Larry H. Miller almost died four times in the past two months — including twice just last week — from what he described as a "serious heart attack" and a host of other type 2 diabetes-related ailments.

There was even one time during his now-completed 59-day hospital stay that a "discouraged" Miller asked his doctor "to take me out in the west desert and leave me" after bleeding gastrointestinal ulcers required two surgeries and eight pints of blood to repair. That was the lowest of many low points.

His doctor, fortunately, didn't grant the request.

Those near-death experiences and life-battling struggles that the recuperating Jazz owner had to endure — including kidney failure, a complete loss of lower-body strength and perhaps permanent damage to his left hand — helped turn a trip he did make Friday into a sweet moment to savor.

Four days after his last operation, the 64-year-old Miller finally got to go home.

"It was really neat just getting into the car at the hospital, knowing that I was going home," Miller said at a press conference Friday afternoon at EnergySolutions Arena in his first public appearance since the ordeal began. "And as we pulled into the driveway, it was pretty emotional."

"Pleased, relaxed and grateful" were words an improving Miller used to describe how he felt about returning to his own home after the two-month scare that began when he suffered a heart attack on June 10.

That's opposed to his lengthy and tough hospitalization, which he called "the most physically challenging time of my life."

Miller, whose medical condition has been kept under wraps by his staff, first received a pacemaker to help him heal and deal with his condition. However, his body didn't respond to it well, so he required a surgery — the first of three — to put two stents in his heart two days later. That procedure was done at the risk of damaging his kidneys, which were in serious danger of needing permanent dialysis to function properly. But after weeks, Miller somehow defied medical odds and cleared that hurdle.

"I could go to another realm and explain what happened, but doctors couldn't," Miller said.

In other words, Miller believes he was on the receiving end of a miracle.