Buffalo, New York and Florida have to be the luckiest places in sports right now. First, there was the story of Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett who suffered a major spinal chord injury when he dove head-first into a
Buffalo, New York and Florida have to be the luckiest places in sports right now.
First, there was the story of Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett who suffered a major spinal chord injury when he dove head-first into a tackle. Everett, who attended the University of Miami, was then saved from paralysis by the Miami Project.
Now he’s up, walking and making an appearance on Oprah.
That was such a wonderful story that doctors could do such a thing as save someone from paralysis. If they could do it for him, that means they can do it for others in the future, and that is amazing to me.
But most recently, in Buffalo, doctors were able to save the life of Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik.
During a hockey match, Zednik accidentally took a blade to the neck when his teammate Olli Jokinen took a spill on the ice.
Zednik told The Buffalo News that he remembered everything from Jokinen’s fall, to his throat being accidentally slashed — the blade narrowly sliced his cartoid artery — and the ambulance ride to the hospital.
Zednik reportedly lost five pints of blood in the accident, but he said he barely even felt the blade and that he rushed to the bench because the gushing of blood.
“I remember the doctor holding my neck and telling him ‘Don’t push so hard. I can’t breathe,’” Zednik told The Buffalo News. “I talked to my trainer (Dave Zenobi). I remember them saying, ‘OK, go to surgery.’”
Dr. Sonya Noor of the Buffalo General Hospital operated on Zednik and repaired his artery.
Zednik appeared to be fine and was able to spend Valentine’s Day with his wife, Jessica.
He was released and flew home to Florida Friday.
Jessica told the newspaper that her husband’s injury was a reality check.
“Life is so fragile, and you don’t own it,” she said. “You never know and take everything for granted. Not anymore, believe me.”
Isn’t that the truth? With every injury, there’s a reality check they’re we’re all human. It’s really scary to think that injuries like Everett’s and Zednik’s could happen to anyone.
Even though I don’t play sports anymore, that doesn’t mean I can’t get injured in some way.
It makes me think about my nephews that will most likely play sports when they’re older and I do have relatives who play sports and I don’t even want to think of the possibility of them getting hurt.
But it’s nice to know that there are doctors out there that are doing amazing work and that with the more severe injuries, research is being done to make sure doctors have all the answers.
