Paralyzed hockey player Matt Olson returns to Totino Grace
FRIDLEY, Minn. (KMSP) - Hockey player Matt Olson, a 2014 graduate of Totino-Grace High School in Fridley, Minnesota, hosted the annual Advent Mass Wednesday at the school.
Olson was paralyzed during a game last February in Chicago, and he returned home to Isanti, Minnesota, in September after spending months in the hospital and rehabilitation centers.
Olson was a member of the Chicago Cougars junior hockey team at the time, and as he was racing for a puck behind the net, he lost an edge and crashed head-first into the boards.
Members of Olson’s medical team said they first thought Olson severed his spinal cord when he arrived at Advocate Lutheran General in suburban Chicago. Fortunately that was not the case, but the accident left him a quadriplegic.
Find a video of the event here.