Wild players make special day for two kids during family skate
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Matt Dumba and Marco Scandella sat on the Minnesota Wild’s team’s plane during a recent trip through Western Canada and came up with a plan for Friday’s Stadium Series family skate at TCF Bank Stadium.
Both didn’t have anyone coming in for the event and they wanted to make a special day for two youths dealing with health issues in the Twin Cities area. They contacted the Wild and asked how they could make it happen.
On Friday, as Wild players skated with their loved ones, Dumba and Scandella led nine-year-old Ty Olson and 13-year-old Connor Johnson around the makeshift rink inside the stadium. Both are patients with Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare.
Two years ago, Olson suffered a traumatic brain injury and an incomplete spinal cord injury after being involved in a car accident on his way home from a Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey game with his family.
On Nov. 24, Johnson got his eyes checked to see if his vision was causing headaches. During the trip, his doctor noticed his optic nerves were swollen. They found a large malignant brain tumor that was cutting off fluid to his brain, and he was taken to a hospital for surgery on Nov. 27.
Olson has been able to transition from a wheelchair to a walker to walking on his own, though his mother Cindy Olson notes Ty is “a little unsteady at times.”
Johnson had a month off after surgery before he had a chemo port surgically implanted in his chest on Christmas Eve morning. He then started proton beam radiation on Dec. 28. Johnson’s had those every weekday (Monday through Friday) for six weeks. He’s also had a chemo treatment every Monday during this six-week radiation period.
He’s currently in off time while his body recovers before heavier chemo treatments begin for nine months.
While both situations were scary for both families, Friday provided a brief respite for them.
“Ty, two years ago, was a kid that played hockey and didn’t have any struggles skating up and down the rink and shooting and doing any of those things, and then all of a sudden it came to a halt,” Cindy Olson said. “For us to see him, this winter was the first time he put skates on and attempted to skate, for him to make six laps around this ice is pretty amazing and makes my heart pretty warm for this.”
In the cavernous Golden Gophers football team locker room after the skate, Dumba and Scandella chatted with the kids and said their goodbyes – hoping to stay in touch and monitor their progress.
Said Scandella, whose father died of prostate cancer earlier this year, “It was just fun to see the smiles on the kids faces. It was a great experience for me too just to be part of that and just to see the family going through something so tough have a good day.”
Added Dumba, “It just all happened so perfectly. We’re really happy that it worked out that way. Great experience for everyone. It was once in a lifetime to be out on that ice surface for everyone.”
MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY
– – – – – – –
Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
