Former Calgary Flames co-captain and Hockey Hall of Famer Lanny McDonald surprised a city police officer who helped save his life earlier this year by paying him a visit with the Stanley Cup in tow.
Const. Jose Cives performed chest compressions on McDonald at Calgary’s airport in early February after the 71-year-old collapsed while returning from the NHL’s all-star game in Toronto.
Cives had no idea that McDonald, who played with the team during its 1989 Stanley Cup win, was coming to a fundraising event on Friday put on by the Calgary Police Rodeo Association, nor did he know that McDonald would also be accompanied by his former teammates Tim Hunter, Colin Patterson and Rick Wamsley.
In a video posted online by the Calgary Flames, Cives says he got a call over his radio in February saying a man had collapsed, prompting him to race to the scene. He performed chest compressions and used an automated external defribrilator on McDonald until EMS arrived.
Cives and McDonald now go for coffee and share laughs these days, with Cives saying they get along “brilliantly.”
McDonald calls Cives, who is listed as a director with the rodeo association, a “local hero” in the video and says it was “extremely special” to bring the Stanley Cup to him and his fellow officers.
“We had given them a couple of auction items, but to be able to surprise them, be here, knowing they make such a difference in the community, is so rewarding, and what a great way to thank Jose,” McDonald said in the video.
The Flames legend also thanked “two beautiful nurses” who he said also jumped in to save his life.
Cives said he’s been told he was working on McDonald for ten minutes before emergency responders took over.
“There were many times when I thought that Lanny wasn’t going to make it through, but I wasn’t going to stop until I got some sort of result,” Cives recounted of that day in the airport.
“There isn’t a day that goes by where he doesn’t remind me that I’m the man that broke him — his ribs, his sternum — but on the flipside, he always tells me that he’s forever thankful that I was one of the people that saved his life.”
McDonald, originally from Hanna, Alta., was released from Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary two weeks after his cardiac event.
Friday’s fundraiser also raised money for the Missing Children’s Society of Canada.
“We’re all teammates, but they have a different kind of teammate challenge and it’s great to be able to support them here tonight,” McDonald said.
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