March 6, 2022. It’s a day Rylee Bennett can only remember parts of.
She remembers playing in a playoff game in Windsor, N.S., with her Halifax Western Capital U18 teammates. But she can’t remember how the game ended for her.
Bennett, who was 16 at the time, fell hard into the boards. Her helmet, which broke, took all the impact as her head hit the top of the boards.
“I kind of remember letting out a scream when I got hurt and our trainer rushing over, but I don’t remember anything after that because I passed out,” Bennett said in an interview before a team practice in Bedford.
“I just remember waking up in the hospital and I had no idea what was going on.”
Bennett had suffered a serious head injury. Her brain was bleeding and beginning to swell.
The event was horrifying for her teammates and her coach, who just happens to be her father.
“Once we understood the severity of the accident, the whole day was a bit of a blur for our family,” said Kevin Bennett. “Between leaving the rink and getting to the hospital and dealing with all the possibilities that were put in front of us, it was a very long 24 hours.”
Doctors were considering performing brain surgery, but fortunately the swelling around the young hockey player’s brain started to recede. Her first day at the hospital is something she’ll never forget.
“I was just laying in the bed in a terrible amount of pain. It was very overwhelming,” said the teen, who lives in Kentville and is now a Grade 12 student at Northeast Kings Education Centre.
“Every minute, I was just waiting for the doctors to come walking through the door and tell me if I’m going to need surgery or not and would I be able to play hockey again, which was a terrifying feeling.”
A slow recovery
Even after recovery, serious head trauma can often have lingering effects. Bennett was told to take things extremely slowly when she was sent back to her home in the Annapolis Valley. She could not return to school right away, and even the simplest of tasks were difficult.
“She still had double vision in one eye, so she wasn’t seeing well and her mobility wasn’t great,” said her father. “She was released to go home to just rest and sleep, and the neurologist gave us a long list of things not to do.”
While she was determined to get back on the ice with her team in the fall, she knew rushing back into it was not the way to go.
“At first I wasn’t…
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