On March 12, 2021, a young nineteen-year-old Russian hockey player received a severe blow to the side of the head by a hockey puck. Timur Faizutdinov was a defenceman for the Dynamo St. Petersburg’s junior team in the MHL and the captain of this hockey team. Faizutdinov was backing up into his defensive zone when an opposing player shot the puck in an attempt to dump the puck into his offensive zone. This resulted in the puck hitting Faizutdinov’s head. Although this looked like a regular dump-in by the opposing player, it quickly turned into a tragedy that rarely happens in the sport of hockey.
The puck happened to hit Faizutdinov on his temporal bone which resulted in its fracture along with a damaged carotid artery and a cerebral hemorrhage. After the incident happened, he was transported to the Burdenko Medical Neurosurgical Institute in Moscow where doctors pronounced that he was in critical condition. After a long, hard battle fighting for his life, Faizutdinov was unfortunately pronounced dead.
According to medical studies, the mortality rate for a temporal bone fracture is only about 7.9%, which is low. Although there are extenuating circumstances, such as the additional injuries, it is said that doctors could not go forward with the surgery due to the facility and were also worried that transporting him would be putting him at greater risks. This was definitely a hard decision to make by the medical staff and one that no one wants to make.
It has been a very unfortunate event for this nineteen-year-old and a sad week for everyone. His team plans to hold moments of silence in his memory before the start of their next few games. May he rest in peace. “Forever Dynamo. Forever in our hearts.”
Scott Boucher
Sport, Not Games ⚽ 