EAST LANSING, Mich. – A Michigan State tennis player who lost 60 pounds and had to re-learn how to sit up and walk due to a near-death bout with ulcerative colitis has returned to the court and seized the No. 1 position on his team.

Health battle early in MSU career

Jack Winkler was recruited to play tennis for Michigan State during his senior year at Brother Rice High School in Birmingham.

Michigan State’s head tennis coach, Gene Orlando, said Winkler had an “unbelievably successful” summer before the beginning of his college career. But his game lulled throughout his freshman campaign, and that’s when the health problems began.

Winkler experienced severe pain and rectal bleeding, and doctors diagnosed him with ulcerative colitis. Medical officials said that essentially means “inflamed colon.”

His energy, weight and appetite fluctuated throughout that year, but he got back into the swing of tennis with treatment, medication and dietary practices, officials said.

As a sophomore, Winkler earned the No. 1 position on his team and a national ranking, his coach said. But his health wasn’t progressing as well as his performance on the court.

Return to hospital

By Oct. 5, 2019, Winkler was only a few weeks into his junior season. He was “severely anemic and 60 pounds underweight,” doctors said.

He was taken to Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital with compound complications from UC and spent 47 days there battling infections, dehydration, pneumonia, high blood pressure and severe pain, according to the hospital.

“He was so weak and the pain was excruciating,” his mother, Kelly Winkler, said. “The bells and alarms were going off constantly.”

His mother rubbed his feet for hours and dashed home occasionally to make his favorite meal, chicken pasta, in hopes of sparking his appetite.

“I was so scared,” she said. “He had a fever and pneumonia and everything started to fail. I asked our pastor to come and anoint him. We realized we could lose him.”