Indians reveal Leonys Martin is recovering from a life-threatening bacterial infection

A few days ago, the Indians shared that outfielder Leonys Martin was hospitalized at the Cleveland Clinic with an undisclosed medical condition. Manager Terry Francona said on Friday that his illness would not be disclosed at the time because of the family’s request for privacy, but that “What I would say, if you believe in saying prayers and things like that, keep him in your thoughts. But he’s in a good place. He’s at the Clinic and he’s getting good care.”

It sounded like a concerning situation at the time and was original described as “intestinal turmoil” with Martin going on the disabled list on August 9th, but as the weekend went on it was clear that something serious was going on as players wrote Martin’s name on their hats the Cleveland Clinic detail was made public.

Now, we know just how serious his medical condition was and remains as Indians President Chris Antonetti spoke to the team and media about Martin’s situation. Shockingly, Martin has been suffering from a reportedly life-threatening bacterial infection that entered his blood stream and affected his internal organs.

While he is currently recovering and his outlook is positive, Antonetti did stress that his recovery will be measured “in weeks, not days” and that the condition was considered life-threatening as recently as a few days ago. Antonetti did not mince words when describing the severity of the situation with details like multiple organs being “compromised” and that without the “herculean” effort from his nurses and doctors things could be “in a different spot than they are.”

Fortunately, Martin has apparently made a lot of progress in his recovery over the last day and a half. However, the team stresses that his recovery will be a long road and that he’s far from being back to full health. Hopefully Martin is fully out of the woods and on the road to recovery, and our thoughts are with him and his family during this scary time.