from Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun,

Hours before the Senators owner appeared Sunday night at centre ice at the Canadian Tire Centre with his children Anna, 16, and Olivia, 13, ahead of the club’s home opener against the Montreal Canadiens, the 56-year-old Melnyk sat down with the Sun for an exclusive one-on-one interview at his Ottawa hotel.

Speaking for the first time since a lifesaving liver transplant on May 19 at the Toronto General Hospital (TGH), Melnyk revealed during the two-hour discussion his health issues really started with a stroke in January and by early April he learned he needed the transplant in order to live.

“I’d never been sick a day in my life until I was 50 years old and even then it was nothing major,” said Melnyk.

When he became ill, Melnyk was going downhill fast and his closest friends urged him to get help. He was having trouble sleeping, difficulty eating and felt sick to his stomach most of time. He went to see a friend at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Toronto in late January to find out what was wrong.

“He said, ‘You look like (crap) and I said, ‘Well thank you, so do you.’ But I can get away with that because I’m sick,” he said with a smile.

It was at that point he learned he’d had a stroke. He received treatment and then moved to a rehabilitation centre in Toronto where he remained until late-March. While he was supposed to be getting better, his health continued to decline and he had symptoms typical of patients whose liver wasn’t functioning properly.

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