Six months ago, Craig Cunningham almost died after suffering a pre-game heart attack that led to his heart not beating for two days. Four months ago, the Arizona Coyotes’ minor-leaguer had part of his left leg amputated thanks to infection fears. Today, he took the ice at the Coyotes’ Gila River Arena before their season finale against the Minnesota Wild:
Craig Cunningham on the ice at Gila River Arena today. Amazing. Inspiring. pic.twitter.com/8PL5bSegsH
— Graham Taylor (@goldencanuck) April 8, 2017
That’s amazing, and it speaks to the remarkable recovery Cunningham has made. His survival in November after a heart attack before his Tucson Roadrunners’ AHL game against the Manitoba Moose was miraculous; his heart didn’t respond to conventional treatments and he was only saved by unusual emergency surgery performed by a team of experts. Amazingly enough, that surgery used a procedure that had only been done three times before, all by his surgeon.
The efforts to save Cunningham’s heart damaged the circulation in his leg, though, leading to them having to amputate part of it in December. But his recovery has gone well since then; he was getting around with a walker early last month. He was able to skate again for the first time last Friday, joining the Roadrunners for a morning skate, and it’s great to see that he was able to get on the Coyotes’ ice today.
Cunningham’s story has taken plenty of twists and turns overall. He played well for the Vancouver Giants and Portland Winter Hawks in junior, but was passed over in the 2009 NHL draft. While he was taken in the fourth round in 2010, most of his professional hockey career has been in the minors, and his 5’9”, 189-pound frame has made him easy to overlook. He’s only played 63 games in the NHL, but has been a successful AHLer, and was picked as the Roadrunners’ captain last November before his on-ice collapse. He’s also just 26, so before that heart attack, there seemed to still be a solid chance of him getting back to the NHL.
The leg amputation means Cunningham will probably have to move on from playing professionally. However, it’s great to see him back on the ice, and he told ESPN’s Craig Custance in January that the amputation’s only a minor setback for him:
It was past midnight ET, and the conversation with Craig Cunningham was winding down. He made a simple request: Don’t focus on the amputation — not when there are so many positives to highlight, so many people to thank, a life to live.
When a guy defies death, when he makes a miraculous recovery after his heart stopped before a hockey game, when he lives through 83 minutes of CPR to stay alive, the least you can do is honor his request.
…”Every time I think about how I can’t play anymore, I just think back to [the fact that] I’m lucky I’m not 10 feet under,” Cunningham told ESPN.com on Monday evening from Banner-University Medical Center in Tucson. “If I have to sacrifice playing hockey to be alive — and it’s a tough pill to swallow for sure, it’s been my whole life since I was 4 years old — it’s time for me to move on.”
Cunningham is sure doing that, and he’s doing so in impressive fashion. His recovery has been remarkable, and it’s awesome that he was able to take the ice again Saturday.
[Graham Taylor on Twitter]
