Here’s an excerpt from the CP/NHL.com article:
A Russian lawmaker said Tuesday that rising hockey star Alexei Cherepanov, a first-round draft pick of the New York Rangers, may have died due to negligence on the part of paramedics who responded to an emergency call.
Cherepanov, 19, died Monday during a Continental Hockey League game outside of Moscow. Russian investigators said Cherepanov suffered from chronic ischemia, a medical condition in which not enough blood gets to the heart or other organs.
Pavel Krasheninnikov, who sits on the Russian Hockey Federation’s supervisory council and is a member of the State Duma, said there was no ambulance on duty at the arena where Cherepanov’s Russian team, Avangard Omsk, was playing.
He asserted that emergency workers took too long to respond and didn’t have a defibrillator, a machine used to shock the heart. It was unclear how much time it took paramedics to respond.
“There are elements of negligence here,” Krasheninnikov said in televised comments.
Moscow regional investigator Yulia Zhukova said officials would look into why Cherepanov was playing with ischemia, and said officials could open a criminal investigation.
Former Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr played a shift with Cherepanov and was talking to him on the bench shortly after they left the ice, when Cherepanov suddenly collapsed, said a Rangers spokesman who talked to Jagr.
Incredibly bad luck. Cherepanov had it all going for him. Prodigous talent, exceptional intelligence, down to earth humility, and heart throb good looks.
He would have been a superstar to transcend the sport in New York.
This tragedy should be a tough lesson to us that every arena and school must be equipped with an Automatic External Defibrillators (AED). All parents should advocate to their school principal and minor hockey administrator to push for the installation of AEDs.
Hey Guys,
The sad part about this tragedy is that most AED are incredibly easy to operate, they’re almost idiot proof with simple instructions on them (where to place the two pads, how long to wait between shocks, clearing the area/body before delivering the charge…….).
To think that Alexei Cherepanov could still be alive if the arena had a functioning Defibrillator.
A truly sad and tragic situation for a player that would have been a sure fire star in the NHL.
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