"The Florida Panthers forward lost five pints of blood after his carotid artery was nearly severed by a teammate's skate, which barely missed his jugular, during a February 20, 2008 game in Buffalo. Zednik managed to skate back to his team's bench where an assistant trainer applied a towel to the wound, but he went into shock and had trouble breathing. Placed on a ventilator, he needed an hour-long surgery to reconnect the artery. New Jersey Devils coach Peter DeBoer, who coached Zednik in Florida, recently told <italics>The Star-Ledger</italics>'s Rich Chere. ""He basically practically died in the hallway there in Buffalo."" Zednik, who had been knocked out and hospitalized by a concussion, broken nose and bruised throat in 2002, returned to action seven months later."
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