EPTIt was the first game of playoffs. We had a strong team, not the favourites to win it but certainly a strong contender. I was playing on my home town juvenile hockey team(ages 18-20). And this is what happened, as I recall it.
It was the second period and I was hustling back to pick up the loose puck with a member of the other team hot on my heels. I grabbed the puck and made to curle wide and hopefully pass the puck up ice, but I never got that far. My memory is a little sketchy as to how it happened exactly but, I ended up on the ice(I suspect I had help from the stick of my forechecker) and then that same kid fell over me, or on me or something. I wasnt overly pleased but my main goal was the puck, so I looked down for it, and I saw a bit of blood. It must not have been alot of blood because I pretty much disregarded it and started to get up. That was when my defense partner yell something along the lines of "OMFG", while he stared at me. So I looked back down at the ice, and I found substantially more blood. Again, for some reason I wasnt overly concered about it but, I was pretty tired after a long shift, so I decided to stay down on my knees and hope that the ref blew the whistle. I distantly remember hearing a few screams from the stands, but it was really just a blurr as I looked up for the ref, and heared his whistle sound.
It came as a releif because now I could forget about playing hockey and focus more on that weird stinging coming from my wrist/forearm. The adrenaline was pumping nicely through my veins so I wasnt really aware of much pain, that was until I looked down at my left arm. It was one of those moments where, as a kid, if you cut yourself but you didnt really notice it, you could keep on playing until you saw the damage, then it was time to cry and run to mommy. Well, as I looked down I noticed that I was kneeling in a fairly big pool of blood, and then I saw my left wrist was doing this funny squirt gun thing with my blood. I then realized it would be a bad idea to lay on ice and wait for the trainer to come to me, so I got up and started to skate for the bench. As I skated I decided to put pressure on the wound, like they always saw in those medical shows, well that didnt really work. For one, I still had my stinky, sweaty, likely bacteria filled hockey glove on, and there was simply too much blood to have any hope of slowing it. I did get to see the inside of my wrist though, which was interesting. I don't have a clear memory of what exactly I saw, I was more concered about making it to the bench, and how light my head was suddenly feeling, but I can say that I saw alot of dark red stuff, darker red stuff, tissue or muscle, I didnt know, and I also saw these funny white strand things. So I got to the bench and the trainer was ready with...a towel or rag or something. There were two volunteer fire fighters on the coaching staff so I guess they knew what they were doing, I wasnt too worried.
So I stood on the ice for a few seconds, with my arm over my head, blood trickling down my arm(or up it) and into my elbow pad. It was then that I got really hot, and I mean...really hot. I thought about trying to take off some equipment but when I looked at my free hand, I found it was covered in blood; from trying to put pressure on the wound during my skate to the bench, it made me think of LoTR and Sauron, the white hand and stuff, cept my hand was red...anyway. Some team mates helped remove my helmet and neck guard, while the refs ordered both teams back to the dressing rooms, they would have to run the zambonee to try and clear up the blood on the ice. So I sat down on the bench, learned that an ambulance was about 5 minutes out and got some other teammates to take off my skates and shin pads, I was still extremely hot. During my 5minute wait for the ambulance I attempted to make pleasant small talk with coaches around me, asked them how bad they thought it was, if I would need any stitches(a silly question really), but none of them seemed very talkative.. weird right? So I started to get pretty nausious, bit of tunnel vision, my lips got pretty heavy and I noticed I might be slurring my words a bit. Also, it was getting quite painful now that the adrenaline had flowed out of my body and onto the ice, not so good. It was about then that I took a dedicated look at my forearm, and the towel in it. Yes, I said in it. The cut was so deep that they had to put the towel right into to soak up the blood. The ambulance arrived shortly thereafter and I had to stand up to get onto the stretcher. My vision went black the second I stood up and I was kindly guided to, and laid down on, the stretcher, where my vision slowly came back. I then was rolled to the entrance of the arena and loaded into the ambulance where I was wisked away to the hospital.
-- I guess that got kinda long so I'm going to break it into two parts. I'll have part2 up, probably tomorrow, where you will learn: the damages, the road to recovery, and what my arm is like now. Plus Pics!!
Edit: To answer a few questions:
Nothing happened to the kid as far as I know, it was really just an accident. I dont know who he is to this day, nor am I too concered about finding out. I figure the only way he could have cut me so deep(he hit my bone[ulna]) is if he stepped directly on it, but I'm not 100% on it.
Maybe you shouldnt get too hyped about the pics, I only have ones of my arm all stitched up and now, nice and scared. I dont think anyone took pics of the pools of blood I left behind, let me just say...very dark red, and very big.
Part2:http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=106095
