Ex-Giant finds new life after cardiac arrest
Popular Giants alumnus launches All Heart Foundation to prevent sudden cardiac arrests
Craig Cunningham was having none of it. I got cleaned up, at least by my standards. Dress shirt, pleated pants, fancy leather jacket. I hadn’t seen Cunningham since the former Vancouver Giants stalwart forward suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed on the ice just before an AHL game in Tucson, Ariz., on Nov. 19, 2016. The 27-year-old would later have part of his left leg amputated due to infection issues.
He’s scouting now for the Arizona Coyotes, and texted a month ago to say that he would be at Rogers Arena to watch the Canucks face Colorado on Tuesday.
“You look good,” he said, before a grin that I recognized immediately as a pre-emptive strike. “I totally expected you to show up in shorts and a T-shirt.”
And it was game on. Cunningham was a 16-year-old rookie with the 2006-07 Memorial Cup host Giants. He’s long been close with fellow Trail native Ray Ferraro, the former NHLer turned TV analyst. The first time I interviewed Cunningham, I asked about that. He begged me not to write about it until he could ask Ferraro if it was OK that he talked about it. Cunningham’s that guy. He gives a damn about things that most people don’t give a damn about.
After I was diagnosed with cancer in October 2010, Cunningham and Giants teammates James Henry and Brendan Gallagher made a point to visit me in the hospital, along with team strength and conditioning
coach Ian Gallagher. It was a day I needed a boost. They ended up being the ones to provide it. I still appreciate that.
Fast-forward to Nov. 19, 2016. I remember it vividly. I was sitting at the Legends Pub in Richmond, watching hockey with a buddy. I
was checking Twitter, and it came up that something had happened in the Tucson game, and then that it was Cunningham, who was Tucson’s captain, that it had happened to.
I texted Ferraro. He would know, if anybody would. When he texted
back that things were dire, I contemplated chucking my phone at one of the big-screen TVs.
I planned on going to see Cunningham while he was recovering in Tucson, but I was diagnosed with cancer again in January 2017. Even if doctors would have signed off on
it, travel insurance would have been an obvious issue.
Sure enough, my cell rang one night. It was an Arizona number. Cunningham wanted to see how things were going, right smack dab in the middle of all the turmoil in his life. He’s that guy.
Cunningham looks healthy now. He says he’s happy. He’s still having trouble from time to time with his leg, but he’s working out again, and has put on the 30-plus pounds he lost at one point.
He’s on the road 20 days a month now for the Coyotes, checking out games, trying to find talent they should acquire.
“Am I looking for a Craig Cunningham? I’m looking for someone better. I’m looking for a guy who can be a regular (in the NHL),” said a laughing Cunningham, who wound up playing 63 NHL regular-season games, along with 319 AHL contests. “I’m trying find the needle in a haystack, the guy who is flying under the radar. Those are the guys I like seeing.”
He’s toying with the idea of maybe getting into coaching or player development. He may remain a scout. He’s talks repeatedly about how grateful he is to the Coyotes for giving him a chance to stay in hockey.
Along the way, that’s made it even easier for him to stay close with former Giants teammates. He was recently in Edmonton, where he hung out with Milan Lucic. He’s still tight with Lance Bouma and Brendan Gallagher.
The hockey world, as a whole, has embraced him. That’s been part of his recovery, part of his reason to fight.
“I was getting text messages from guys I never played with or against,” said Cunningham, who is second all-time in regular-season games for the Giants (295), trailing only Neil Manning (310).
“People would fly into town just to visit me. It’s crazy. I was just cussing out this guy on the ice two weeks ago and now he’s in my hospital room, making sure that I’m doing all right?
“I’ve never felt so supported, and from people I don’t even know. ”
He’s an easy guy to get behind. He was already that guy. Now he’s that guy and he’s a miracle. He has no clue how many surgeries he’s had. Let that resonate for a moment. “Fifteen. Twenty,” he guessed. “I don’t even know. A lot of the surgeries were when I was still in a coma. They kept taking me down (to the operating room) and washing out my leg. Take me down, wash it out. Take me down, wash it out. Finally, they said they couldn’t wash it out anymore.”
Don’t kid yourself. It still gets messy for him sometimes. When things go sideways, he relies heavily on his mother, Heather. His father, Alvin, died in a car accident when Cunningham was six.
“She’s the toughest person I know,” Cunningham said. “It’s not even close. She’s gone through more in her years than anyone ever should.”
He also lauds the doctors, nurses and other staff at Banner University Medical Center in Tucson.
“I knew right away they were all invested,” said Cunningham.
With all that in mind, Cunningham has teamed up with his surgeon, Dr. Zain Khalpey, to start the Craig Cunningham All Heart Foundation. The website promotes “the goal of preventing sudden cardiac arrests. With our cutting-edge technology and your help, we can all make a difference and start saving lives.”
“I actually met with a doctor ... at B.C. Children’s Hospital and spoke about things,” Cunningham said. “It’s amazing how many cardiac conversations I’ve had in the last year.
“We’ve just started the foundation. It’s been a lot of work to get it off the ground and get it out there. At 27, I’m finally learning how to operate social media accounts. I’m finally learning how to write proper emails.
“I decided that I’m not going to let this be my defining moment as a person. Obviously, it’s changed me physically, but I’m not going to let it change who I am. I’m working on my new normal. It’s getting there.”
It’s exciting times, and enough to bring out suitable attire for.