Update on official who had his wrist slit in gruesome on ice injury
During yesterday's game between the United States and Latvia, on ice official Lukas Kohlmueller suffered a gruesome injury. On the play USA's Logan Cooley and Kohlmueller collided and as they fell Cooley's skate cut the officials wrist. According to those in attendance there was immediately a dangerous amount of blood and he rushed himself off the ice for medical attention.
The game was immediately stopped and both teams were sent to the locker room. The final 3-minutes of the period was added onto the second period as the ice surface was cleaned and resurfaced after the removal of the blood. Today Scott Wheeler of The Athletic has provided two updates on Kohlmueller.
The first update provided by Wheeler indicated that the official was immediately rushed into a first surgery to have his wound tended to, but there was little information available at the time. This morning Wheeler was able to provide a more promising update.
After a first surgery yesterday, he underwent a second surgery today and there is not expected to be permanent damage.
Given the circumstances this seems like almost a perfect outcome. After undergoing two surgeries it appears Kohlmueller has somehow managed to avoid what appeared to be an extremely damaging injury. Our thoughts and prayers remain with Kohlmueller as he recovers from this significant injury and begins to rehab himself back to hopefully an on ice return.
