Red Wings' Fischer thankful, but uncertain about future
Jiri Fischer couldn't control his emotions. Grateful he's still alive, the Detroit Red Wings defenseman is hopeful he'll play hockey again.
Whether he'll return to the ice won't be known for weeks.
``I'm really, really glad to be here,'' said Fischer, making his first public comments since collapsing on the bench with cardiac arrest during a game last month. ``Not too many people get a second chance like I did.''
Fischer cried, sniffled and took deep breaths as he spoke about the night he collapsed and a possible return.
``I don't foresee myself coming back in the next couple of weeks,'' he said. ``But this is what I know, what I've worked for my whole life. I don't want it to be taken away.''
During the Nov. 21 game against Nashville, team physician Tony Colucci said, Fischer collapsed with a racing, irregular heart beat, and after an auto defibrillator was used on the 25-year-old Czech, his heart stopped for an unknown length of time, as Colucci expected.
``It's basically like rebooting your computer,'' Colucci said of a heart's reaction to an auto defibrillator. ``It stops it and resets it.''
After performing CPR, Colucci said he detected a good pulse, and Fischer was taken from the arena by ambulance to Detroit Receiving Hospital.
``I don't remember going down on the bench,'' Fischer said. ``I don't remember anybody trying to save my life. I don't remember the ambulance much, but ever since I got to (the hospital), everything is just like it happened yesterday.''
Colucci said Fischer had cardiac arrest, which he said took the lives of basketball players Reggie Lewis and Hank Gathers.
Fischer is being treated with medicine, is undergoing regular tests and hasn't been cleared to play. Colucci said it would be premature to project a timetable for Fischer's return.
``The first question is, does he want to take that chance?'' Colucci said.
A week after collapsing, Fischer again experienced an abnormal heartbeat and returned to the hospital for treatment. He was released a few days later.
``I've been in and out of the hospital the last three weeks,'' Fischer said. ``I'm being monitored constantly and I've been doing some testing.
``A couple times I had to go back in the hospital because when I was at home, my heart rate raised out of the blue. I wanted to make sure everything was OK and stable, and it is.''
When Fischer was pressed on his possible return or retirement, he said simply: ``I'm 25.''
Fischer was diagnosed with a heart abnormality in 2002, causing him to miss two days of practice. When the 2002 result came back, Fischer was given a stress test that he passed, and he said his heart essentially is a little thicker than normal.
Fischer said he's constantly thankful just to be alive.
``I get up every day, and I live,'' he said. ``Everybody says you should live to the fullest, but what is it? No one knows until you come so close that you're not worried about anything else but being alive.''
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