UPDATE: The Calgary Flames said on Nov. 25 that T.J. Brodie would return to the ice for the Monday night game against the Pittsburg Penguins, after being on injured reserve.
Calgary Flames defenceman T.J. Brodie is on the mend after experiencing a medical incident during practice on Thursday, but there’s no set timetable for his return.
“He’s doing well,” Flames general manager Brad Treliving said during a Friday morning news conference at the Saddledome. “He’s feeling good. He’s sore.”
Brodie, 29, collapsed on the ice Thursday and began convulsing before being taken away on a stretcher.
Treliving said the incident happened about 15 minutes into practice, leading their medical team to spring into action.
“When he first passed out, he was out,” Treliving said. “He was, I guess, passed out is the best description I could give.”
“It was scary… It was emotional for everybody.”
A tweet from the club just before 6 p.m. Thursday indicated Brodie had been released from hospital.
“He’s doing well. There’s part of it he doesn’t remember,” Treliving said, adding that the team has been hit hard by the experience.
It’s a sentiment that Flames coach Bill Peters echoed while speaking with reporters outside the locker room.
“There’s a lot of love amongst that group, and it’s a tight group,” Peters said.
“An unnerving situation on the ice. Very unnerving. I’ve never seen that, never been a part of it. And I thought our medical staff and our doctors, the first responders for EMS did a fantastic job.”
Flames captain Mark Giordano said the incident was one of the scariest things he’s ever seen.
“I know it’s happened before where guys have gone down and had episodes like that, but for me personally, seeing a teammate on the ice, I’ve never been a part of that,” Giordano said.
“I think all of us were in a bit of shock there when we were just standing on the ice,” Giordano added.
“He did say at one point that he was feeling a little bit off, but over the course of a season, coming to practice every day, there’s going to be days where you don’t feel right, you don’t feel 100 per cent, so it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.”
Moments later, Giordano said Brodie was asking for Gatorade and saying he was a little “off” when he fell to the ice.
Treliving said a “battery” of tests had been done and all the ones that have been done to date have “come back negative.”
“We’re not going to leave any stone unturned in terms of the tests that we go through.”
Treliving said Brodie won’t be travelling with the Flames to Arizona as they take on the Coyotes on Saturday, or to Las Vegas on Sunday for their tilt against the Golden Knights.
“An event like this can be caused by something inside the brain, something scary, and it can also be caused by what we call syncopal or fainting episodes,” said Dr. Ian Auld with the Flames’ medical team.
“The reasons for why people faint are many – dehydration certainly could be one of them. I don’t think we have all the answers yet and we do have a few more tests to go, but all the early indications are that it’s very likely more related to a fainting episode than it is to something significant and inside the brain.”
Auld will be in regular communication with Brodie as he recovers.
“He’s going to see a neurology team. We’ve got some specialists lined up that will do some testing to look at the sort of brain side of things. He also will see a general internal medicine person, we’ll work up the cardiology side of things – so those are the types of testing.”
Comments