Severe neck injuries are uncommon in hockey but not unprecedented. During an NHL game in 1989, Clint Malarchuk was cut on the neck by a skate and suffered a severed jugular vein, one of the major blood vessels that stretches from the head to the chest. Malarchuk survived but following the gruesome injury, he
developed post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2008, Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik had a carotid artery, another major blood vessel, sliced open by a teammate’s skate, forcing emergency surgery. He missed the remainder of the season but returned to play in 2008-09.