Dec 17, 2008 - 04:30 AM

By Brad Kelly

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COURTICE -- Ian Young chased a dream to play in the NHL, yet, it could be argued, that dream turned into a nightmare in 1967 when the young netminder for the Oshawa Generals was hit in the face with a shot, leaving him with just four per cent peripheral vision in his left eye. Undaunted, Young made a comeback and was eventually offered a pro contract by the Boston Bruins. Just over 40 years later, he would have to deal with another serious injury, this time a fractured skull after being hit accidentally and crashing to the ice while coaching a practice. This is Part 1 of a three-part series.

INJURIES GETTING OLD WITH YOUNG

Practice was progressing just like the countless others Ian Young has been on the ice for over the years, whether as a player or coach. On this day, Sept. 13, 2008, he was putting a group of Clarington Minor Atom Triple-A Toros through a routine breakout drill, utilizing both ends of the ice.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen," he says in amazement, looking back at the accident that transpired that day. "I was always used to getting hit, stitched, and going back out on the ice.

"I was always used to getting right back up and going right at it again."

This time he wasn't so lucky.

Standing at centre ice with the other coaches, the 62-year-old from Courtice had his feet taken out from under him from behind as one of the young players lost an edge, sliding along the ice. Young fell backwards, his helmeted head bouncing off the ice. The force of that initial blow dislodged his old helmet, resulting in his unprotected head cracking off the ice again, he says.

"When I got to him he was out cold and blood was coming from the side, from what I figured was a laceration to the side of the head," describes Andreas Fruhner, the trainer of the Toros team.

Fruhner, 41, has 17 years of first aid and CPR training through his job at Ontario Power Generation, and has spent the past three seasons as a trainer for hockey. Though he was on the bench at the time of the fall, tying the skates of one of the young players, he was one of the first to provide medical attention to Young, joined on the ice immediately by others.

"I've never dealt with something like that before. I've never really seen anything like that before," says the Courtice resident of the severity of the injury. "You always wonder if you're going to be prepared when you take the training. It's not the same being in the classroom. But it's not something when you go out there and say 'Well, I was taught this in class, and this in class.' You just react and do what you need to do."

Young, eventually regaining consciousness and speaking to those attending to him, was loaded on to a stretcher and taken by ambulance to Lakeridge Health Bowmanville. He was quickly transferred to Toronto Western Hospital for surgery.

"He wasn't doing quite so well, so we actually needed to work on him quite quickly and get him to the operating room," says Dr. Mojgan Hodaie of the Krembil Neuroscience Centre at Toronto Western Hospital.

She describes the team at Western that assessed Young upon his arrival as the strongest neurosurgical group in Toronto. They were told in advance of the severity of Young's situation, and that the transfer from Bowmanville to Western for immediate attention was urgent.

The bruising on Young's brain from his head hitting the ice was quite sizeable, she describes, forcing Young into surgery for about an hour. When he came out, he was put into an induced coma to monitor the pressure inside the brain.

After a couple of days, the pressure and swelling was under control, and the recovery process began. Luckily for him.

"We would have had to go in and remove all of that large bruised area inside his brain and potentially leave him without a sizeable portion of his skull to accommodate for the swelling," says Dr. Hodaie of the consequences if a second surgery was needed.

"Ian was very lucky because he recovered quite nicely," she adds.

The two days of laying motionless in a coma is lost on Young, who has no recollection of those days spent in the Toronto hospital.

"When I woke up I wasn't talking fluently," says Young of the initial days of the recovery process. "But over the days it got better and better. I just thought it was the drugs they had me on, but my kids were telling me it was the surgery, and I said, 'What surgery?'"

Two weeks of rest followed at Toronto Western, with a transfer to the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute for three weeks of therapy that included conditioning and cardiovascular work, as well as speech and word tests with a therapist. With no signs of any ill effects from the injury or subsequent surgery, he was discharged Oct. 23.

THINK FIRST FOUNDATION OF CANADA

The Think First Foundation of Canada has been in existence for more than 15 years, dedicated to injury prevention awareness, specializing in spinal cord injuries and concussions, like the one Ian Young suffered.

When an athlete is diagnosed as having a concussion, the first question that usually follows is 'When can I return to play' and not 'How do I treat it.'

Dr. Charles Tator is trying to reverse the order of those questions.

A member of the Krembil Neuroscience Centre at Toronto Western Hospital, Dr. Tator is the Founder and Past-president of the Think First Foundation of Canada. Their website, www.thinkfirst.ca, is a helpful tool for any coach, parent or player dealing with a concussion, outlining the necessary steps to recovery.

"Return to play is something people are asking us constantly," says Dr. Tator, who spends time travelling the country to speak at lectures and educational sessions, many for Hockey Canada.

"People do not recognize that a concussion is a brain injury. That's the message we have to teach," he says. "It can't be lightly regarded. It's not a bell ringer or ding.

"You can't return to play until fully recovered. By full recovery, we mean that all the symptoms are gone. If you go back into action before all the symptoms are gone, you're more susceptible to getting a second injury."

There can be life consequences if an athlete returns too soon.

Dr. Mojgan Hodaie, who is also a member of the Krembil team, paints a visual picture of a concussion similar to putting a goldfish in a plastic bag with a small rim of water around it. If the bag hits or lands on a hard surface, the fish inside swishes back and forth, which is similar what happens to the brain.

"Our brain has a rim of water around it, so when you hit a very hard surface, the brain can actually move inside within the skull because of the energy that is transmitted to it," she says. "That causes swelling and bruising of the brain."

Preventing concussions is a tall order, admits Dr. Tator. He does credit the emphasis on such things as checking from behind in hockey, and the stop sign crests players wear on the back of their sweaters as significantly reducing the number of spinal cord injuries the past few years. Part of the problem in reducing head injuries is the equipment, he says.

"The truth of the matter is that helmets do prevent brain injury, there's no doubt about that. But there is no helmet on the market that will prevent all concussions. It doesn't exist."