The New Annan native suffered a serious and potentially life-altering injury while playing with Mid-Isle’s bantam AAA team in Pownal on Feb. 23, 2014.
“I was angling the guy off, and he fell on me,” recalled the forward.
The ball of MacGuigan’s hip broke off completely. MacGuigan was transported from Charlottetown’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax.
“I don’t remember a lot about that trip,” recalled MacGuigan, 17. “I just remember being in the ambulance, and waking up at the IWK. They were really good to me, and the doctors were unreal.”
Although MacGuigan faced a long recovery, he remained upbeat, never gave up and envisioned playing hockey again.
“I told my family I wanted to walk again No.1, because when I first got hurt the doctors said, ‘We don’t know if you will walk again,’” said MacGuigan. “I set a few goals to walk again, get back to normal and get back to playing hockey. That motivated me to keep up with my physio.”
Although it was scary to hear he may not be able to walk, the son of Rick MacGuigan and Krystal Wall noted he received strong support from his family and friends, including grandparents Richard and Marion MacKinnon, who were there for all of his four surgeries.
“The problem was I had lost blood flow to the centre of my hip,” explained MacGuigan. “When they drilled the holes in my hip, they gave me what they called an experimental drug. . . They talked it over with my parents because they needed their approval to try it on me, and my parents OKed it.”
Eye-opening experience
Despite the seriousness of his own situation, MacGuigan admitted his time at the IWK was an eye-opening experience.
“When I first got there I thought I had it pretty rough, but then you see all the little kids in the rooms and you realize you don’t have it too bad,” said MacGuigan, who was on crutches for just over two years. He was finally able to ditch them “one at a time” on June 27, 2016.
When asked if there was a turning point in his recovery, MacGuigan referred to his most recent checkup.
“The goal was to keep the blood flow and keep the ball in my hip round, because if it flattened I would lose my mobility,” he explained. “When I knew it was going to stay round, I was already thinking hockey.”
MacGuigan, a Grade 11 student, realized a goal of playing with the host Kensington Torchmen in this week’s annual high school hockey tournament.
“I never got to play for the team before,” said MacGuigan in explaining its special significance. “Just the opportunity to play for your school is cool.”
MacGuigan began the 2016-17 campaign playing in the Summerside Industrial Hockey League, and later joined Kensington’s non-hitting midget A team.
“It feels awesome (to be back playing),” said MacGuigan. “It’s what I wanted to do.
“Early on there were times I was thinking, ‘Am I going to be back playing hockey?’
“There were a lot of people who told me, ‘You really shouldn’t do that, forget that, just worry about walking so you can work.’”
MacGuigan admitted he “was a little shaky” his “first few times” back on the ice.
“I wasn’t back to normal, but thought I could play,” he said. “My skating has come back pretty good, I think,” assessed MacGuigan. “It gets sore every once in a while, but I can’t complain. I’ve been pretty lucky.”
[email protected]
Twitter.com/JpsportsJason
https://www.facebook.com/jason.simmonds.180
