ONTARIO, Canada — Despite 10 stiches still stretching across his throat, a 14 year old hockey player from Ontario, Canada isn't letting it stop him from speaking out about the importance of wearing a neck guard... and wearing it properly.
"I have a second chance at life," said Brandon, whose last name KARE 11 is not disclosing due to his age. "I don't think other people – if this happens to them – will have another chance."
Brandon says the incident happened immediately after a faceoff during a Hockey Eastern Ontario U16AAA game last week. While chasing down the puck, he says a teammate skating next to him tripped.
"I was looking down at the puck and then I saw his foot come up and it happened so fast," Brandon said. "I didn't have any time to react."
Looking in the mirror today, he knows how lucky he was that it wasn't worse, but at the time, he says he had no idea.
Brandon: "I didn't feel anything happen. I could have literally finished my shift. I didn't feel it until I felt this warm liquid crawling down my neck, so I touched my glove (to my neck) and there was blood."
Kent Erdahl: "So on the ice, nothing really happened? Nothing stopped?"
Brandon: "No the play just kept going. The ref didn't even notice or anything. When I got on the bench I took my neck guard off and I looked at my teammates and then I saw my teammates eyes open really wide, like oh Sh**. Everyone started to panic and we all ran around to find something to put pressure on it. At certain points I thought I was going to die because of what happened to the guy in Minnesota."
Brandon is talking about Hibbing native, Adam Johnson, who died after taking a skate to the neck during a game in England just a few weeks prior.
In Brandon's case, he was wearing a neck guard, something that has been mandated throughout his time playing in Ontario.
But even though Hockey Eastern Canada credited the guard for helping to save his life, he admits that he's not completely sure what role it played. That's because he, like many other players his age, modified his neck guard.
"I taped it up so (it would be smaller)," he said. "I found when I taped it I could really move my head a lot and I felt like it wasn't there, so I wasn't wearing it like I was supposed to."
"I didn't know how bad it was modified," said Brandon's mother, Stephany Rockwell. "I learned, obviously, after the fact. Did the neck guard help? We'll never know. Unfortunately, at that arena they don't have cameras, but – for sure – there was someone above watching over him."
Whether or not the neck guard helped deflect the blade, Rockwell says it was soon very clear how lucky he was. Somehow, his trachea and carotid arteries were spared.
"The doctor said he was a centimeter away (from the arteries) left or right, and one millimeter away (from the trachea) if it would have been deeper," Rockwell said. "It could have been a totally different situation."
Once his stitches are removed in the coming days, Brandon should be cleared to play hockey again. He says he won't hesitate to rejoin his team, but he'll also be sure to be wearing a shirt with a neck guard built in.
"Wear them how you're supposed to wear them and make sure they fit," he said. "I'm never going to modify mine again. I'm going to wear it properly, how it's supposed to be worn."
"Everyone who has skates on their feet, they should have a neck guard," Rockwell said. "I don't care how old you are, I don't care which country you're in, wear your neck guard and when you do wear it, wear it properly."
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