Kindel Back in Pittsburgh After Medical Episode on Team Plane

On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Penguins team plane returned to the Salt Lake City International Airport shortly after takeoff due to a medical episode involving forward Ben Kindel.

Before Thursday’s morning skate, Penguins President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas provided more information about what happened.

Dubas said that about 10 minutes into the flight back to Pittsburgh, the 19-year-old collapsed in what has been diagnosed as a vasovagal episode.

According to the Mayo Clinic, they occur when you faint because your body overreacts to certain triggers. Your heart rate and blood pressure drop suddenly, which leads to reduced blood flow to your brain, causing you to briefly lose consciousness. From Dubas’ understanding, Kindel had no prior history, and they are working to determine exactly what triggered it.

Penguins Head Team Physician and Medical Director, Dr. Dharmesh Vyas of UPMC, immediately tended to Kindel, along with the rest of the medical staff traveling with the team. That includes Head Athletic Trainer/Director of Reconditioning and Performance Therapy Jason Meehan, Athletic Trainer/Performance Therapist Brandon Mazza, Lead Performance Coach Patrick Magee and Director of Performance Rich Rotenberg.

Kindel was given oxygen on the flight, regained consciousness, and it was determined that the flight needed to be landed back in Salt Lake City. Paramedics met the plane, and Kindel was transported to the University of Utah Medical Center for further treatment.

Kindel was cleared to travel back to Pittsburgh on Wednesday, which he did with Vyas, Rotenburg and Assistant Coach Nick Bonino and Assistant GM Jason Spezza. Kindel is back in the building today for treatment and further testing. Dubas said they hope to get all of the increased testing done within the next few days, and see if Kindel can return to practice on Sunday or Monday.

“But I would put an asterisk on that,” Dubas said, emphasizing that it’s hard to put a time frame on something like this and that the team will provide updates as they go along.

“We'll place him on injured reserve, and we will obviously follow very strict guidelines to ensure a safe return to training and play for Ben. That's our primary goal, and paramount to his future and health. So, that's how we will handle it.”

Dubas said he met with Kindel this morning, who is still processing what happened.

“Very clearly shaken and sorting through it. So, I think we just have to continue to help him with our resources through that,” Dubas said.

Kindel’s teammates were all glad that he was around the rink today, with Sidney Crosby saying it gave them a lift.

“It's a scary situation that we went through, and at the end of the day, we're just happy that Kindy is all right, he’s back with us, and he'll be an important part on this team moving forward really soon here, I think,” Erik Karlsson said.

It’s one of those situations that puts everything in perspective, a reminder there’s more at stake than just wins and losses, and that the human side is always most important.

“It's family. These are people that we spend a lot of time with, that we go through a lot with, and you just want to see the best for everyone. And a situation like that, it puts things in perspective pretty quickly,” Crosby said.

It also made everyone who involved gain a deep appreciation for how people are trained to handle crises.

In this instance, that includes the medical staff; the Air Canada staff comprised of Captain Sumit Lohchab, FO Sean Gallant, Flight Attendants Gilles Bourque and Linda Kong, Sub Flight Attendant Hannah Park, and Mechanic Michael Doyle, who handled everything with such professionalism; Head Coach Dan Muse, who provided constant updates and continually checked in on everybody; and Director of Team Services Jason Seidling, who had to arrange logistics for an unexpected situation quite literally on the fly.

“Just the calm and way that they can handle and restore order very quickly is deeply appreciated,” Dubas said.

The traveling party didn’t land in Pittsburgh until around 8 PM on Tuesday night after boarding the plane before 11 AM, so the organization made Wednesday a ‘get what you need day’ from both a physical and mental standpoint after the previous day’s events.

“It was important for us to just provide the resources that players needed to make sure that they were in a good spot, because whether you like it or not, the show goes on tonight,” Dubas said. “So, we have to gear up and get ready for that. That’s number one, we take care of our people, and number two, put them in a good place to perform.”

The players who spoke during media availability all said the mood around the team is good right now, considering what happened.

“Having something happen like that put things in perspective pretty quickly,” Crosby said. “But I think just knowing we got a chance here to bounce back at home and put that trip behind us, we just got to look at it as an opportunity to get back on track.”