00:00As the puck came into the center and the players slammed into each other, the Sabre's goalkeeper
00:04collapsed to the ground, clutching at his throat. In the clash, one of the skater's blades had cut
00:09Clint's throat, severing his jugular vein. The players and staff started frantically calling
00:14out for help, and that's when the Sabre's athletic trainer rushed in and got to work.
00:19However, Jim Pizzatelli wasn't just an athletic trainer, he was also a Vietnam combat medic,
00:24so he certainly wasn't a stranger to blood. He calmly reached into the wound,
00:28pinched Clint's severed jugular to stop the bleeding, and rushed him off to the hospital.
00:33Clint received 300 stitches to close the wound, and within a week, he was back out on the ice
00:38once again. It truly was remarkable, and everyone thought that Clint's life had been saved,
00:43but as an x-ray would show years later, this was just the start of Clint's problems.
00:47See, deep down, after seemingly recovering from the injury, Clint knew that something else was wrong,
00:52but he pushed it to the back of his mind. He feared that if he didn't return to the ice
00:56and
00:57proved to his team that the near-death experience hadn't weakened him, his contract wouldn't get
01:01renewed, and his career would be over. So, he put on a tough guy persona, and he pretended
01:06everything was okay. Clint played a few more seasons before he retired, and then he shifted
01:11his focus to coaching. On the surface, it looked like life was going great for Clint. He coached a
01:16couple of teams in the minor leagues, before showing back up in the NHL again as a goaltending
01:20coach for multiple major league teams. 20 years passed since his injury, and so at this point,
01:26it seemed like it was well and truly in the past. That was until February 2008. Clint was sitting
01:32at home, watching the live broadcast of a game between his old team, the Buffalo Sabres, and a
01:36team he used to coach, the Florida Panthers, when there was a clash on the ice which felt all too
01:41familiar to Clint.
01:42Oh boy, Zednick, oh my goodness!
01:44Oh my god, he's bleeding back!
01:45Richard Zednick is cut wide open!
01:48As Clint watched in stunned silence, they replayed the moment it happened on the TV.
01:52It's his neck. They've got a towel on his neck. Dave Zanobi, the trainer, they're getting
01:56him right into the dressing room. This is very serious.
01:59Buffalo has seen something terrible in past years.
02:02Fortunately, personal art stuck with the lives of wealth.
02:04Richard Zednick was treated at the hospital, and he was okay. But Clint wasn't. The unresolved
02:09trauma of his own injury two decades ago resurfaced. And this time, Clint couldn't just push
02:15through it. He started losing control of his thoughts. He self-medicated with alcohol, and when
02:19that wasn't enough, he took his rifle, pointed it under his own chin, and he pulled the trigger.
02:24However, miraculously, Clint survived. The bullet had gone through his chin, splitting
02:29his tongue, smashing a tooth, through the roof of his mouth, and had lodged itself in
02:33his sinus pathway, stopping it from damaging his eyes or his brain. After this moment, Clint
02:38started finally seeking out the help he desperately needed. He got better, and since that day,
02:43he's inspired others all over the world to reach out for help and not suffer in silence
02:47like he did.
02:48He did.
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