Ovechkin was cut inside the upper thigh, the Penguins Doctor was tardy

From Capitals Insider: Boudreau said there was a delay in getting the doctor down to the locker room to stitch up Ovechkin.

Ovechkin came in and put a hit on Letang right after Letang cleared the puck up the ice. After the hit, Letang pivots to his left and as he fell, his left leg came up and his skate made contact with the inside upper thigh of Ovechkin. The Pittsburgh broadcast had the video isolated after the game.

Washington's Comcast SportsNet reported he had a cut on his leg and the doctor could not arrive in the locker room in time to get AO back on the ice.

Posted by: Crosby did not cut Ovechkin | December 28, 2007 01:47 PM

To my knowledge the artery that goes inside the upper thigh is the femoral artery. It is a continuation of the external iliac artery, which comes from the abdominal aorta.

From Miami Herald:

A gunshot to the femoral artery -- like the one suffered Monday by football star Sean Taylor -- can quickly spiral out of control, with a person losing 20 percent of his blood in a matter of minutes, doctors say.

The femoral artery runs from the abdomen to the knee, carrying blood to the lower extremities.

''In a matter of minutes you could lose up to two liters of blood,'' added Dr. Fahim Habib, a trauma surgeon at Jackson Memorial. ``In several minutes, you could bleed to death.''

From Detroit Free Press:

Stopping blood loss gushing from a bullet hole in that region can be extremely challenging if the wound is close to the groin. It would be hard to put a tourniquet around it, said Dr. Gannon Dudlar, an emergency medicine specialist at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago.

An injury of this type “essentially means you can lose all the blood in your whole body within five minutes,” said Dr. Mary Pat McKay, director of George Washington University’s Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

Rapid blood loss can prevent oxygen from reaching the brain and vital organs, leading to death.

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I think Washington Capitals management needs to do something about this incident. File a formal complaint, ask for investigation... "Now Doctor came in, stinking of gin..." Why was he late anyway?

I am not even talking about Ovechkin missing OT because he was not stitched in in time, it's about life & death situation...


Update from Capitals Insider::

Okay, here's the latest on Ovechkin: He suffered a superficial cut on his inner thigh after Kris Letang's skate came up and sliced him as he laid a hit on the Pittsburgh defenseman early in the third period last night.

Oveckin is walking around without a limp, and said he's not in pain. But he's also not practicing today and doesn't know for sure whether he will play tomorrow. He said he plans to take the morning skate, then make a decision on whether to play or not.

"Probably I play," Ovechkin said. "After the morning skate tomorrow, we'll see."

Okay, Ovechkin had superficial cut on his inner thigh . Now look and count the word "superficial" in Anatomy of the Human Body definition for femoral artery in femoral triangle:

In the femoral triangle (Fig. 549) the artery is superficial. In front of it are the skin and superficial fascia, the superficial subinguinal lymph glands, the superficial iliac circumflex vein, the superficial layer of the fascia lata and the anterior part of the femoral sheath.

Update from Washington Post:

Ovechkin went almost immediately to the visitors' locker room at Mellon Arena for medical treatment after suffering the cut. But he said he had to wait for the Penguins' medical staff to finish tending to a Pittsburgh player, and therefore ended up missing the rest of the game.

Coach Bruce Boudreau was not pleased by the delay.

"You make your assumptions on that," Boudreau said. "I don't know why. I'm just told that it took upwards of a half-hour."

Ovechkin added, "If he comes earlier, maybe I play. I don't know. It's over now."

That is unacceptable. Imagine instead Sid The Kid was cut. Of course he had to wait just like Ovechkin for 30 minutes if the Penguins' medical staff had to finish tending to a Capitals player...

That's right, you have to light the pipe to make this happen. :-)