A 64-year-old Gainesville man, Louis Foster, tragically died following a cardiac arrest prompted by a hockey puck strike to the chest during an adult league game at Jacksonville’s Community First Igloo. The incident took place Tuesday at approximately 10:30 p.m., where Foster, who played as a goalie for the team Kraken Beers, was struck amid a match against the Fireballs, suffering the impact while he was in his hockey uniform hockey gear, as reported by First Coast News.
Foster initially complained of feeling unwell post-impact, which led to his collapse near the spectator stands according to witnesses, immediately after bystanders and rink staff leaped into action, administering CPR and deploying an automated external defibrillator (AED), News4JAX noted an employee, Aaron Hastings, recounted their swift response to the crisis stating "I kind of hustled over there, saw that he was unconscious, but still breathing, ran over, had someone call 911, and then we flipped him over.", he actively performed compressions and breaths, hitting Foster with the AED twice which was followed by further compressions by another individual until paramedics took charge of the scene.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office informed that the paramedics arrived within five minutes of the emergency call, and Foster was taken to Baptist Medical Center, where his death was subsequently confirmed, and the cause was undetermined pending an autopsy, with JSO investigating the incident, as echoed by Action News Jax. District Sports Medicine Supervisor for Duval County Public Schools Jerry Stevens suggested the possibility of commotio cordis, a rare disruption of heart rhythm caused by blunt chest trauma.
In the wake of the event, the Community First Igloo and the larger hockey community expressed their condolences, Alex Reed, Director of Communications for Jacksonville Icemen and Community First Igloo described the shock surrounding the occurrence, saying "You never, you know, come to the rink thinking something like that will unfold.", this was supposed to be an amateur game, one of many Foster participated in out of his love for the sport, his passing marked not only by the abruptness of his departure but by the collective grief of those shared the rink with him, First Coast News captured Reed stating "We're a very tight-knit hockey community, I may not have known him personally, but, we're all in this great game together."
