Wyoming narrowly escaped death after skating around the neck during a hockey game.
11-year-old Carter Lane played defense when he accidentally tripped over his opponent in the team's final game of the season and flew other youngsters.
The other athlete's skates were to slice into the boy's neck under his ears.
His terrifying parents rushed to his side.
“I hear these things happening, but I don't think it could happen to you,” Carter's mom Lauren Lane told Post, calling it “the worst nightmare for all parents.”
“It was heartbreaking,” she said. “He told me, 'I'm so scared, I don't know what to do.' ”
At first, the boy felt no pain due to adrenaline, but once he did it he was terrified, he said. Oil City News.
“Are I going to die?” Carter recalled the thoughts he had when he realized what had happened.
His mother held Carter's blood-covered hand and comforted him while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.
At least 20 different people dialed 911, Lane said. Paramedics appeared minutes later and rushed Carter a few blocks away to the hospital, where eight stitches were taken to close the wound.
The CT scan showed the horrifying cut was only an inch away from the main artery, his family said.
Lauren Lane praised the neck guard that her son had saved his life.
“The doctor said that if the neck guard wasn't there, the skate would have gone to his jugular vein,” Lane said. “We were talking very differently.”
USA Hockey requires a neck guardian Since Augusta mid-ice collision caused another player's skateblade to slice his neck after former National Hockey League player Adam Johnson was killed during a match in the UK in November 2023.
Carter's pain from the injury eased and the boy returned to school, his mother said.
“He was a rock star,” she said.
He hasn't decided whether he wants to go back to hockey or not.
“We're happy with the choices he makes,” she said.
