Wednesday's action was short lived, one of the more difficult aspects of the sport that we love raised its head. A standout player Simon Danis-Pepin of University of Maine was injured. I didn't have a clear view of the contact so I have no first hand knowledge of the mechanism of injury. I did see the fall and his struggle to lift his torso and legs off of the ice. Regular readers of this blog are aware that in my other life I'm a RN and an old EMT. Because of this I look at injuries and their on ice treatment with different eyes than most sports photographers. Although I understand the need for getting the injured player off of the ice quickly it bothers me so many players with obvious symptoms of concussions are walked off of the ice. The fact is 15% of all concussions carry the risk of neck/spine injuries. If it was your kid would you want them walked off?
When Danis-Pepin hit the ice he was in obvious trouble, trainers quickly came out, assessed him and started treatment. He was able to move his arms,lift his legs from the knee down but seemed in pain. As reported by Blackhawks Trainer, Mike Gapski, Danis-Pepin was experiencing pain down his trapezious muscle and left arm. The full spinal precautions were taken as just that precautions until he could be cleared by definitive care at a hospital. In short the on ice treatment of this injured young man could have been videotaped for any first responder class and titled "This is how to handle suspected cervical injury in an athlete."Bravo! The Blackhawks on ice response team can treat me and mine anytime, a nurses highest praise.
Enough of this Valentine, would you like to see the images of the game?
Powderhornhockey
1 comment:
That's really good to hear that he was treated well. I was scared when I read the title of the Sun-Times article this morning, "Hawks get scare over spill, injury." I'm glad he's OK now, though he's not going to see any more time during the camp.
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