Off the Glass with Huey, Dewey and Louis (Bedard) December, 1997

by Laurel Blackburn

Yes, there is pun intended here. The idea for this came to me last year during one of those sleepless nights where you think up all this great stuff to do and inventions to patent and grocery lists, etc. Usually half the stuff you thought about looks pretty stupid by morning. This one stuck with me, Only I recently was I able to pull it all together.

I've always been fascinated by "blood and guts." Things that send most people running will usually find me inching closer for a better look. When I was 16 I had my appendix removed. Instead of resting in bed I'd grab my IV pole and head to the ER to check out the action. I like to watch surgery shows on TV and I've never been one to turn my head when I've gotten stitches. As a matter of fact, I have an earful of stitches right now. I can't believe doctors don't provide mirrors, I really wanted to watch.

Since my first hockey game I wanted to know about the injuries that the players received. I wanted to know how they happened, how they're taken care of and mostly, how can a player continue to play after receiving an injury. Luckily, I write an article and I can do whatever I want with it.

When researching an article of this magnitude, you need professionals. I went to the top. The top of section U, where on every game night (for the last 3 years) you will find Dr. Donald Dewey.

Dr. Dewey is a local orthopedic surgeon by day and Tiger Sharks team physician by night. I set up my interview for the 2nd period of a recent game. As luck (mine, not the players) would have it Dr. Dewey was in the locker room treating an injury. I waited in the stands for his return. I offered him a melted down drink in exchange for-his time.

Dewey, for those of you who don't know him, is probably one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. I know from talking to guys on the team that he is well liked and respected. Dewey also has a zany side and that made this interview a lot of fun.

Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic was contracted to provide medical care for the Tiger Sharks. Dewey said that since he was the only physician who was interested in hockey, he volunteered to be the team's doctor. When asked what kind of perks came with the job, he said that he gets to go to the games, watch a sport that he enjoys and that he gets to wear that really cool "all access" tag.

I asked him what were the most common injuries he sees during the games. Most of the time he sees bruises, strains and broken noses. Sewing players up is another common occurrence for Dewey. He stitches them up and leaves the simple follow up care, i.e., removing stitches to the Tiger Shark's trainer. All other follow up care is done at TOC.

I asked him about the worst injury that he had ever seen (because I couldn't resist, see paragraph 2). He told me about an Ice Gator that got hit in the leg with a puck. It broke his tibia (the big bone in the thigh). The guy had to have a rod put in his leg that night. That happened 2 years ago.

Dewey also mentioned another incident in which a player from another team took a puck to the eye. He suffered a retinal hemorrhage and lens dislocation. He had to have cataract surgery that was probably a career ender for that unfortunate player.

Dewey said that most of the Tiger Sharks injuries so far have been just a matter of getting stitched up and sent back out to the ice. He says that the only time he won't let a player return to the game is if the player is having problems with his vision, suffering mental impairment or restriction of movement. Some of the injuries that can keep a player out for prolonged periods are shoulder injuries and groin pulls.

I had no idea that a groin pull was serious. Dewey says that it is a tear in the muscle in the inner, upper thigh. Now I know that when Nigel, my 3-year-old, asked Dan Lupo if he could see his boo-boo that Lupo was right to say, "No, I can't show you that boo-boo".

Now that I was finished with the medical portion of my interview, I needed some first hand experience, someone who had suffered a lot of injuries, someone who had seen the needle and thread, someone who probably knows Dewey very, very well...

Who else but Louis Bedard? The first thing I noticed during my interview with Louis is that this is the only time I have talked to him without stitches on his face. He said that so far this season he has been lucky and, although players generally do not like to talk about their injuries, he would answer my questions.

After we found wood to knock on, we continued the interview. I really expected Louis to talk about his injuries and fights as I have always perceived them. That he is a macho who wears his facial lacerations like a badge. That when he returns to the game after being stitched up, he is letting the other team know that he is a "tough as nails player" that can't be intimidated. That he is the intimidator.

Boy, was I wrong. Louis just laughed at all of my stereotypes. The only reason he goes back out after being stitched up is because he wants to play hockey. He doesn't even consider himself as being macho. He sees his injuries as all being part of the game, no more, no less.

Up walks Dewey. They do seem to know each other quite well. Dewey estimates the number of times that he has stitched Louis up over the last year has been in excess of 20 times. Louis on the other hand thinks it's only been 15 times. Either way, the guy has had his share of sutures and then some.

Louis' most serious injuries occurred while playing pee-wee hockey. He says that one time he broke his ankle. Even worse was a severe neck injury he suffered at age 10. I couldn't believe that pee-wee hockey could be so violent, even for Canada. All I could imagine was little Louis Bedard getting the life checked out of him. He then let me know that his neck injury occurred while no one was around. He just fell into the boards all by himself. He ended up wearing a cervical collar for several weeks.

So there you have it. My little peek into the blood and guts of hockey. If I only could have seen some pictures...

As for Huey, I called on an old buddy of mine in Nashville, Tennessee. I just couldn't resist. You can't have Dewey and Louie without a comment or two from Huey. After the obligatory reminiscing about Nashville and all the great things that are going on there, I asked him if he'd ever been to a hockey game. He said it had been about a year since he'd seen Nashville's minor league team play. He also let me know that the finishing touches are being done on their new arena for the Nashville Predators, a new NHL team.

They've also gotten a new NFL team. The guy knows how to rub it in.

I said my good-byes and hung up the phone. I went to my computer feeling rather jubilant. Not only did I get to talk to a couple of really great guys about a really great subject but I finally put together one of those sleepless night ideas. Now about my inventions...