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SERVING MISSION SINCE 1908
Lindsay Hickmott (centre) holds an automatic external defibrillator like the one hockey teammates Ed Griffioen (left) and Kirk Holt used to restart his heart earlier this month.
TYLER OLSEN
Mission man will play again, thanks to firefighters Tyler OLSEN ABBOTSFORD NEWS
The last thing Lindsay Hickmott remembers from his Nov. 9 hockey game is sitting on the bench, getting ready to take his next shift. His next memory is waking up in an ambulance, struggling to breathe and wondering what, exactly, had happened. Less than three weeks later, Hickmott stood in Abbotsford Fire Rescue Service’s Hall 1 with two
teammates, shaking the hand of the fire chief and hearing – not for the first time – the story of how he survived to skate again. ••• Hickmott – a Mission resident and former hockey coach – and his Fraser Valley Cresting Wings were hoping to turn around a losing skid when they stepped onto the Centre Ice surface at 6:30 p.m. to face off against the Canex All-Scars. The game was still young, in the
first period, when Hickmott took what would be his final shift. As the play headed up the ice, Hickmott skated by his own bench then, without warning, suddenly slumped to the ground. Teammate Ed Griffioen, who was on the bench, saw Hickmott try and hold himself up with his stick, then collapse. Griffioen thought Hickmott may have taken a hit in the corner. Wings defenceman Kirk Holt, who looked over his shoulder and saw
Hickmott fall to the ice, thought maybe his teammate had stepped on something. Hickmott stayed down, though, and when his teammates went to check on him, they found him struggling to breathe and moaning. Griffioen described the scene to his teammate Wednesday at the fire hall. “You were still breathing there. You said, ‘I’m going to be sick,’ then all of a sudden your eyes rolled
back into your head. That’s when we couldn’t find a pulse.” Hickmott’s heart and breathing had stopped. But even in his dire condition – potentially minutes from death – he had several things going for him. First, Centre Ice had an automatic external defibrillator (AED) for just such an occasion. Second, there was a fire hall just minutes CONTINUED ON 3
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