“If I was seeing somebody else go through it, I’d probably be more scared,” said the Miami University junior defenseman, who is recovering from a serious laceration to his neck — one that required 100 stitches and 15 staples.
Weber, a native of Gaylord, Mich. and the winner of last season’s Central Collegiate Hockey Association Best Defensive Defenseman award, was accidentally cut in the neck by the skate of a Northern Michigan player late in the first period of what turned out to be a 9-1 victory for the RedHawks.
He underwent surgery at University Hospital in Cincinnati to repair a sliced (but not severed) artery and now is back on campus. On Wednesday afternoon he was at the arena to visit teammates, coaches and staff.
“I have a lot of time on my hands,” Weber said.
That wasn’t the case last Saturday.
“I remember the whole thing,” he said. “I was conscious the whole time. I felt that I was pretty calm the whole time. It’s surprising that I wasn’t too scared.
“The puck got wrapped around (the Miami goal),” Weber remembered. “I was just trying to poke it out of the zone and hit him (the Northern Michigan player) and I fell down and we both bounced off the boards, and I think he tried to keep himself up a little bit by holding onto the dasher (board) there and his fall was a little bit delayed behind mine. His back was up against the boards and (his skate) came right down.
“At first I thought I just got hit in the head pretty good,” he said. “I was down on all fours, just kind of looking at the ice, and then the kid said, ‘Are you alright?’ Usually if you hit someone you don’t ask them that. I guess he immediately saw the blood coming out. I reached for my neck and there was blood on my fingers, and I got up and the blood started coming out pretty good.
“It was like, alright, I’d better skate over to the bench,” Weber said. “I was thinking, man, this could be the real deal here, you know, this could be it. Luckily I was able to stay calm and keep my hand (on the wound). I was thinking as long as I don’t get light-headed I’ll be able to hold it there. I skated over to Jason Eckerle, the athletic trainer.”
Then Weber took his hand away from his neck.
“Blood started coming out,” he said. “Jason saw that the main artery wasn’t completely cut because otherwise the blood would have been shooting out pretty good. He just knew he had to put pressure on it. We walked right through the locker room back through the tunnel where the paramedics were. The process of getting me into the ambulance was pretty quick, they took me over to (McCullough-Hyde Hospital) and they called air lift to Cincinnati.
“My mom was watching back up in Michigan, she was watching on the computer,” he said. “So she’s a little scared at first, but the doctors here (at the arena) right away called her, which was great. All the staff here were awesome. I was able to talk to her probably like 20 minutes after it happened and I was able to tell her I was fine.”
Weber said there hasn’t been much pain, yet.
“I feel pretty good,” he said. “It’s kind of numb on the side. They gave me some pain pills. I haven’t taken any. I’m starting to feel the staples in my neck. I’m waiting for (the pain) to actually hit. The numbness is starting to go away. I think there’s a good amount of nerve damage in there so I can’t feel anything on that side yet.”
Despite his close call, Weber said he is more frustrated than anything else.
“I want to be playing right now,” he said. “We’ll see what the doctors say Friday. They’ll give me a better timetable. But I’ll go crazy if I have to sit out two or three weeks.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.
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