Tragic news out of hockey's Kazakhstan Vyschaya Liga, the highest professioanl league in Kazakhstan, where Russian hockey player Dmitri Uchaykin passed away the morning after being hospitalized due to a hit to the head.
Uchaykin suited up Saturday night for his club, HC Ertis-Pavlodar, in a game versus HC Arystan. Midway through the game, he was knocked unconscious on a high hit from forward Donatas Kumeliuskas.
He lapsed into a coma on the way to the hospital and the following morning, he died. From The Hockey House:
He died at 4am this morning due to a cerebral hemorrhage, which, according to wikipedia, “is a subtype of intracranial hemorrhage that occurs within the brain tissue itself. Intracerebral hemorrhage can be caused by brain trauma, or it can occur spontaneously in hemorrhagic stroke”.
Uchaykin leaves behind a pregnant wife and a young daughter. He spent a big majority of his professional career with Amur Khabarovsk in multiple levels of Russian hockey, including the KHL, before getting traded to Gazovik Tyumen (Russia2) mid season in 2008-2009. He would later play two seasons with Yermak Angarsk (VHL/Russia2) before finishing off the last two seasons of his career with Ertis Pavlodar in Kazakhstan.
His club announced his passing in a brief statement on their website, expressing "condolences to the families and friends of Dmitry."
It goes without saying that this is the nightmare scenario in professional hockey right now. The speed of the game has increased, as have the strength of the players. But the human brain remains as fragile as ever.
Hockey has taken steps towards taking headshots more seriously over the past few years. Clearly, there are more yet to take.
Uchaykin was 33 years old.
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