Ravens player feels fortunate after on-ice injury,
Julianne Bruce avoided serious spinal injury, but concussion problems linger
Compared to Ronny Keller, Julianne Bruce feels fortunate. Keller, a 33-year-old defenceman for a second-division team in Switzerland, was left paraplegic after his fourth dorsal vertebra was damaged when he was checked into the boards from behind on March 5.
Bruce wasn’t checked from behind, but she, too, fell facefirst into the boards after stumbling as she skated around the Carleton Ravens’ net during an RSEQ university women’s hockey game against the McGill Martlets on Nov. 24.
The first-year defender from Dartmouth, N.S., hit the dasher along the boards with the bottom of her face mask. Like Keller, her neck took the brunt of it and she was motionless as she hit the ice.
Trainer Brigitte Roy leaped over the boards before on-ice officials whistled to stop play. A resident physician and another Carleton athletics staffer joined Roy at Bruce’s side.
The young skater says she only recognized the voice of Roy, instructing her not to move her neck or back. Bruce’s jersey and shoulder pads were cut off before, immobilized and strapped onto a stretcher, she was taken to hospital by ambulance.
Roughly eight hours later, she was discharged and on her way back to residence.
“I think it was just a spot of bad luck,” Bruce says now. “It could have been a lot worse.”
Escaping without serious spinal injury is only part of this story, though.
Though she was discharged from hospital the same night she fell, the firstyear journalism student also was diagnosed with a concussion, and nearly five months later she is still dealing with its effects.
Her course marks dropped, and it was only in late March that she practised again with the Ravens. She felt fine physically, but couldn’t keep up with what coaches drew on wipe-erase boards and had to watch other players perform drills before joining in. She experienced headaches the next day.
“Not as bad as they were in January and February, but definitely noticeable,” she says.
Bruce went home for two weeks after the fall into the boards, but returned in mid-December to write five exams, rather than deferring them until February, when she also would have midterms.
She was home again for the holidays, but was back at Carleton for the start of the second semester, even though her symptoms were “basically out of control.”
She attended fewer classes and used a notes-taker from Carleton’s Paul Menton Centre for Students with Disabilities.
During a “good” week in January, she tried for a 10-minute indoor run, but had to stop after eight minutes. Then came more headaches and nausea, and that night she fainted. She was sent back to hospital to get checked out again, and later was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome.
About the same time, she started seeing a chiropractor and the treatments on her neck area were accompanied by diminishing symptoms.
With more energy and better concentration, she attended more classes and, by late March, began to get more physically active. In early April, she worked several shifts as a media volunteer for the women’s world hockey championship.
Questions remain, however: What about academics, and is hockey still in her future?
“That’s the issue, that I don’t know right now,” Bruce says.
A Nova Scotia family doctor has expressed concern about what might happen if she plays again.
An Ottawa-area doctor with experience in concussion issues says she’ll be fine as long as the recovery process plays out in full.
Her mother says “no” to hockey, but her father says the decision is up to Bruce.
Ravens coach Shelley Coolidge says the 5-10 Bruce was recruited to be a “differencemaker” on defence, and the impact of her absence was compounded by injuries to others.
Hedda Gjerde missed the pre-season because of a concussion and Jasmine Levesque broke an ankle, all of which meant forward Jessica O’Grady was forced back to the blue-line.
The Ravens went 6-13-1 during the regular season, with Bruce scoring one goal in her eight games, and were eliminated from the playoffs by the Martlets in two games.
Whether Bruce ever returns to the ice for a Ravens game is a bridge to be crossed when they get there.
“We have talked about it,” Coolidge says, “but we’re not rushing any of those decisions at this point.”
On the plus side, Bruce’s incident illustrated the value in being prepared. A couple of days before that, Coolidge had to step around stretchers while “boarding” was practised in the athletics centre lobby.
“Julianne was a live-case scenario of what you just did that for,” she says.
Hockey aside, this is still a university student in a competitive academic program.
There are also bachelor and master’s of journalism programs at University of King’s College in Halifax, close to home with parents concerned about her health, and a B average is the usual qualifying standard for second-year journalism at Carleton.
“You have to do your best,” Bruce says.
“You can’t not finish the year and just drop out.”