NEGLIGENCE CAUSED DEATH OF NY RANGERS RISING STAR

This is an UPDATE on my October 13, 2008 post, “Small Time Medical Care Hurts Big League Hockey.”   Alexei Cherepanov, once considered a hot prospect for a future roster of our own New York Rangers , died that day when he collapsed while playing hockey in Russia, and could not receive timely medical care because no ambulance was stationed at the arena.  There were additional questions at the time regarding whether defibrillators were available.

Rangers Prospect Alexei Cherepanov

Now, according to the AP news service, Mocscow authorities have accused an ice arena manager and a hockey club director of negligence in Cherepanov’s death , for having failed to have proper emergency medical services in place at the game.   The young player apparently had chronic ischemia, a condition which causes obstruction of the blood supply, usually manifested as arterial narrowing.

While Moscow’s follow-up efforts are to be applauded, let’s hope that the renewed attention to this tragedy results in some real reform in Mother Russia, so that such a preventable incident does not happen again.