Girl Killed By Stray Hockey Puck

On Monday night, Brittanie Cecil became the first spectator to die after being hit by a puck at an NHL game. She also became one of the few fan fatalities at an American sports event other than auto racing directly related to action on the playing surface.

A coroner said Wednesday the 13-year-old girl died as a result of damage to an artery when her head snapped back.

The artery, which runs from the spine into the back of the brain, was damaged, leading to a "vicious cycle" of clotting in the artery and swelling of the brain, said Franklin County Coroner Brad Lewis, who performed the autopsy.

"Initially the damage was not significant enough to cause her any problems," Lewis said. "But over the ensuing 48 hours the damage progressed.

"The puck struck her in the forehead, causing a skull fracture and some bruising of the brain in the area. But that wasn't what led to her death. It was the snapping back of the head and the damage to that artery."

Lewis said he consulted with other pathologists on the rarity of the injury. He said that a fellow pathologist had not encountered a similar injury and death in more than 25 years as a doctor.

An eighth-grader at Twin Valley South Middle School near Dayton, Cecil would have turned 14 on Wednesday. Her father had taken her to the game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Calgary Flames as an early present, friends said.

The girl was struck in the head by a shot early in the second period of the Columbus Blue Jackets' 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Saturday night at Nationwide Arena.

Larry Young, 61, of Winchester, said he was sitting one row in front and two seats to Brittanie's left and was also hit by the puck.

Young suffered a small wound to the back of his head and believes the puck first struck Brittanie, then him before hitting another child.

He said he didn't see the puck coming and suddenly felt a sharp pain to the back of his head.

"I put my hand up to my head and it was covered in blood, so I realized I must have been hit by the puck," Young, who was attending the game with his wife Rosemary and their son Kenny Ford, said Tuesday night.

Rosemary Young, 56, heard a girl about 5-years-old scream in pain.

"I turned around and she was holding one hand to her mouth and had the puck in her other hand and I wondered how she could have caught that," she said.

Ford, 34, also of Winchester, said he looked over and saw the 13-year-old in pain.

"She had her head in her mother's lap and was crying and was shaking," he said.

Ford said everybody then realized what had happened and were motioning ushers for help.

Mr. Young said Cecil was coherent in the first-aid station while holding a bloody towel over a wound on her forehead above her right eye.

She was talking and asked for another towel to wash the blood that had run down her arm, he said.

Mrs. Young said the medics looked at the girl's wound, immediately sat her in a wheelchair and took her to an ambulance.

"She started to seem a little disoriented about the time she left," she said.

Medics told her the younger girl, who was not identified, lost a tooth but wasn't seriously injured.

Columbus center Espen Knutsen's slap shot from the top of the left circle appeared to be deflected by a defenseman, with the puck flying over the high glass at the west end of the ice. Arena officials and medical personnel immediately approached the girl and helped her out of her seat — some 15 rows off the ice — and up the steps to the exit.

Her classmates were in mourning and the small town where she lived was overcome by the loss. Relatives declined comment.

"I spoke to Brittanie's father this morning," Blue Jackets president and general manager Doug MacLean said, teary eyed and his voice choking. "As a father of a 14-year-old and an 11-year-old, I can't imagine the grief the family is experiencing."

A brief news release issued by the hospital said that the girl's parents had donated her organs "in the hope that others will be blessed as much as they were by her life."

The small farming town of almost 1,500 where Brittanie lived, West Alexandria, was in shock.

"Everybody knows everybody. The kids are very close in this town," said Stacy Habekost, who runs a beauty shop. She said the girl's aunt used to work at the salon and that Brittanie had her hair cut there.

"She's a pretty little girl," Habekost said.

Teams warn spectators over the public-address system about pucks flying into the crowd. They also place warnings on scoreboards and on the back of each ticket.

Although rare, spectators have been killed and seriously injured at minor league hockey games. In the low minor leagues and the amateur ranks, the glass is not as high around the rink.

There have been three reported deaths — two in Canada and one in Spokane, Wash. — due to a fan being struck by a puck since 1979.

Baseball's Hall of Fame said its records showed at least five deaths of spectators struck by batted or thrown balls, including 14-year-old Alan Fish at a Los Angeles Dodgers' game in 1970.

No similar deaths were found in basketball or football.

In a statement, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said, "Our fans are our family, and this tragic accident fills us all with a deep sense of sorrow."